The Marker
by Faust23
Summary: Lured away from her research on the protheans, young archaeologist Liara T'Soni joins an expedition to an unexplored part of space. There, a ruined world and a derelict ship hold secrets that may explain the cause of the prothean extinction or may be the harbinger of their own.
1. The Derelict

The Marker

_Two days prior to events on the USG Ishimura:_

"This is quite remarkable, I mean, the discovery of a new race will surely have a great effect on Citadel Space, but I'm afraid I don't really understand...what this has to do with me?" the young asari spoke, her eyes filled with confusion.

It had been a typical day at the dig-site for Liara T'Soni. They had found what they thought were the ruins of prothean living quarters, and although they had only partially completed excavation, already their finds were amazing. They had found several intact examples of prothean writing and the enigmatic data discs that occasionally revealed so much about their history and culture.

Even though she was dirty and worn out, the scale of the ruins and the necessity of speed drove her on forward. Several mining companies had already received permits to conduct mineral surveys on the planet, and they were already stealing priceless prothean artifacts, destroying precious history as they plundered forgotten cities and ancient burial grounds. It made her blood boil. The protheans would be disgusted if they could see it, and it was eve more galling since it was only due the their greatest creations, the mass relays, that they were here at all.

The asari before her just smiled. She was in the matriarch stage, her ageless face giving her a look of bemusement. "I realize this is not strictly in your area of expertise, but we believe having someone with extensive knowledge of the protheans will be a great asset," she complimented her.

Liara blushed in embarrassment, knowing that she must look a silly child to this woman hundreds of years her senior. "Matriarch Alsita, I would hardly call my knowledge of the subject extensive. I know there must be researchers with more experience than I".

"You do yourself too little credit, doctor. You are one of Serrice University's rising stars. Why else would they be funding your expedition," she smiled. "Dr. Aenya Par has insisted that we enlist you in this little excursion".

"Dr. Parr, she knows about me?" Liara asked, perking up a little.

"Apparently she is extremely impressed with your research. She raved about your latest article to me".

"I'm flattered. To be recognized by one so distinguished..." she trailed off.

"Well, now that I've piqued your interest, I would like to show you something else," she said mysteriously, calling up something on her omnitool. "Have you ever seen anything like this?"

Liara looked at the holograph, a pointed helix colored a dull red slowly rotating. As she watched, it glowed a deep red before returning to its inert state. "We believe it is some type of beacon. Obviously it does not resemble any prothean artifact found before, but there are several indications that it might be prothean in origin".

"Yes, it does not seem to match typical prothean aesthetics," Liara examined the image further. "Is this what you want me to study?"

"In fact, we do not have this object in our possession. We intercepted a transmission from the new race I mentioned earlier in our conversation. Most of it was in their unintelligible language, but there was also several lines composed in prothean script and this image," the matriarch explained. "_This_ is what we will be exploring".

She brought up another hologram, one of a ship of a type she had never seen before. "This derelict ship is in orbit around the planet where the transmission originated. STG prowlers have confirmed that there are living beings aboard, but it appears damaged. Since we began observing it, there have been no arrivals or departures and no messages sent out or received. Our mission is first contact".

"My shuttle leaves immediately for our research ship, the _Explorer_," the matriarch continued. "I need your answer".

Liara hesitated for a moment, but she already knew what she was going to do. She hoped she was not getting in over her head. "Yes".

Alsita's lips curled into a thin smile. "Welcome aboard, Dr. T'Soni".

* * *

_The Derelict - In orbit above an unknown world:_

Their small shuttle set down in the unknown ship's hangar bay, the lights on the transport the only thing illuminating the cavernous space. Without gravity flotsam from the damaged ship and any cargo that was not tied down floated around, casting eerie shadows as the transport landed.

"Scorch marks. Weapon scarring. Signs of battle," one of the STG operatives, Mordin, commented, his eyes scanning the hangar as the floodlights panned over the area.

"Small arms fire...think they were boarded? Pirates maybe?" the specter Saren growled.

"To early to conclude anything. More information needed. Suggest caution though," Mordin answered.

"We detected life signs on the ship, so someone must have survived. Maybe we can help them," Liara spoke softy.

"Or maybe the group that attacked this ship is hanging around," Saren said darkly. "The main hangar bay seemed to have suffered significant damage and was sealed. A ship could be concealed there".

"Unlikely. No ship detected in vicinity. Main hangar too damaged to hold intact ship," Mordin waved off his concern.

"Still, whoever owns this ship was recently attacked. They may shoot first and ask questions later," the team leader, Aenya, cautioned.

"If they prove hostile, we eliminate them," Saren said matter of factly.

Liara was incensed at his callous attitude. She glared at him and said, "Kill members of a new species in a first contact scenario? The Council would never approve something like that!"

"Council approval previously granted," Mordin corrected her. "Repeat of Yahg incident discouraged".

"Killing them could prove problematic in long run if their government uncovers our involvement," Mordin's fellow STG operative Virlen commented.

"Risk minimal. Will destroy evidence of presence if necessary," Mordin reassured him.

"Our primary objective is to recover samples of the alien's technology. First contact is a secondary objective," Saren said brusquely, finishing what the two salarians had been reluctant to say.

"I thought this was a peaceful, scientific mission, not to loot the ship like common brigands," Liara seethed. "What if they try to call for help while we're here playing the part of pirates?"

"We are monitoring outgoing communications. We will block any message intended for outside the system," Virlen explained. "Precautionary measure".

Liara looked incensed but she controlled herself, only letting a cold, "I see" escape her lips.

"The area looks clear," Saren's partner, Nihlus said as he checked the hangar with his flashlight equipped assault rifle. "The power may be down throughout the ship, so helmets on, lights out. Everyone got a weapon?"

There were murmurs of assent throughout the group. They were all itching to go exploring and see what this new species was like. Liara was feeling a little anxious and bewildered. She had never handled a weapon, and the pistol felt foreign in her hand. She had expected when she received her doctorate to be touring ruins of long dead civilizations, not one that was very much alive.

"Nervous?" Aenya questioned, giving Liara a reassuring smile.

"I admit that I am a little out of my element," she conceded, her gaze lowering to the ground.

"I think we all are. An impromptu first contact scenario is something no one can be prepared for," the older asari sighed. "We'll just have to muddle through".

"Goddess give me strength," Liara spoke under her breath.

"Pilots stay with the shuttle. Under no circumstances are you to leave the craft. We don't know what we're dealing with here, and we may need extraction at any time," Saren barked.

"Got it," the two asari responded in stereo.

"Move out. I'll take point. Nihlus, take the rear," Saren ordered. "Operative Solus, you and your partner protect the scientists".

Mordin's eyes narrowed at the presumptuousness of the specter, but he did not argue.

"What about me?" their last member spoke.

Saren turned to him having obviously forgotten about their engineer. "You, _quarian_, should be ready to evaluate any tech we come across. I am sure you realize, however, that if you attempt to record or misappropriate anything, it will be a direct violation of a Council directive. I will then be forced to take _measures_ to rectify such a violation," he threatened.

His voice was filled with such contempt that Liara was shocked. She knew that quarians were widely disliked though there were few quarians on Thessia, but such overt racism made her uncomfortable.

"Tavil'Kala nar Qwib-Qwib," the quarian spoke quietly.

"What?" Saren sneered.

"My name, Tavil'Kala nar Qwib-Qwib," he spoke up, more defiantly this time.

"I don't recall asking for your name, _quarian_," he spat with emphasis on the last word. "Fall in line or we'll see how well you breathe in a vacuum without that mask".

"Threats against team members unhelpful. Focus on mission," Mordin stepped between the two. The smaller salarian operative seemed unintimidated by the turian's anger, his large, black eyes never leaving Saren's narrowed, blue ones.

"I remind you that this is a _Council_ mission, operative. STG involvement was only agreed to in an _advisory _role, not command," Saren said slowly, his voice laced with poison.

"That is exactly what he is doing, _advising_," Virlen pointed out in a wry tone. "Listen and you might learn something, specter".

"Saren, there will be plenty of unknowns to fight. We don't need a fight amongst ourselves as well," Nihlus spoke up. "Come on, we have a job to do".

"I am aware, Nihlus," he snapped at his fellow turian before motioning to the group. "With me".

Liara fell in line with the others, shaking her head at the posturing of these soldier types. She turned to Tavil'Kala, hoping to make the engineer feel at least a little welcome. "Uh, hello," she said awkwardly, cringing at the way she sounded. "I'm Liara T'Soni. I am very pleased to make your acquaintance". She held out her hand for him to take, but he just looked at it with those glowing, silver eyes.

After a few painful moments, she lowered her hand, feeling completely embarrassed. The feeling was only made worse a second later when the quarian growled, "Okay, you've done your good deed for the day, T'Soni, so now you can go back to ignoring me".

She shrank back, muttering softly, "I just didn't want you to feel alone. I thought you could use a friend".

He let out a bark of laughter at that as Liara's face turned purple from embarrassment. "Look, T'Soni. I just hope to make enough on this mission to buy a ship, finish my pilgrimage, and get back to the fleet. I didn't tag along for the wealth of scientific knowledge the Citadel races stand to gain. You don't have to force yourself to talk to the vagrant. You leave me alone, I leave you alone, everyone is happy," he said brusquely.

Liara did not answer, instead turning away and pretending the conversation never happened. It was easier that way, she concluded. When she was younger, she often found it difficult to relate to her peers. While acquaintances had gone off to have adventures with mercenary groups or spend a few centuries flitting from one bar to another in a haze of sex, drugs, and music, she had her heart set on studying ancient civilizations. That was her idea of a thrill, discovering something new about races long dead. They had so much to teach them. She supposed it made her strange in a way. "_Like a 90 so year old matron_," she smiled at the thought.

"Don't let him bother you," Aenya interrupted her daydreaming before whispering. "Quarians are always a little bitter".

"Perhaps with good reason," she thought aloud, blushing as she heard the words leave her mouth.

"Maybe," the older asari said, her eyes flicking to the shrouded quarian, "but it's a situation of their own making".

Liara just nodded, not willing to argue the point any further and risk alienating the person who recommended her for the mission. "It's impressive that one so young has already been published. Your work on prothean iconography has brought a new perspective to the field," Aenya shifted topics.

"Oh, uh...I'm happy you read it. I didn't think you would read such an obscure periodical," Liara responded modestly.

"I keep apprised into new developments in prothean research. It is not my field, but it is something I have an interest in," she said with a smile.

"That's surprising. Anthropologists are usually more interested in extant cultures rather than dead ones, especially one so distinguished as yourself, doctor," Liara complemented her.

"Flattery," Aenya chuckled.

"It's not flattery," Liara said anxiously. "I always admired your work. I took your class on multispecies societies at Serrice specifically because of that".

"Oh, you took that class? I apologize if I don't remember you. I've taught so many students over the years..."

"There were a few hundred students in the class. I could hardly expect you to remember everyone's name," Liara placated her.

"Well I hope to get to know you better this time, Liara. Please call me Aenya, there is no need for formalities among colleagues, right?"

"Of course," she nodded. Things were looking up already.

They reached the airlock, and Saren fiddled with the controls. Apparently it was not difficult to understand, as the outer door retracted into the wall with a hiss of hydraulics. They all stepped inside as the door closed behind them, the hiss of air filling the room soon followed by condensation forming on their visors. The ship's atmosphere seemed unusually humid. Maybe the owners were native to a tropical world and required a moister environment, Liara thought. The possibilities were endless.

"Keep the chatter to a minimum once we get inside," Saren ordered. "We don't want to give whatever's in there more warning than necessary".

The inner seal detached and the airlock groaned as it opened to the interior of the vessel. The corridor was gloomy, the only light coming from a series of flashing red emergency lights and dim fluorescent bulbs. It was very different from asari ships, Liara concluded, the dark hallway completely open to the guts of the ship, pipes and ductwork covered only by flimsy grates. It was quite unlike the sleek white, purple and blue designs she was used to.

"Stark, utilitarian. Mining ship most likely," Mordin concluded as his eyes flicked around.

"Would explain the huge hole in the planet," Nihlus spoke quietly. "Maybe that wasn't caused by a weapon".

"No obvious weapon emplacements. Design not conducive to combat. Not warship".

"Any ship that can rip a chunk out of a planet concerns me, warship or not," Saren growled.

"Quarian ships break up large asteroids for eezo on occasion," Tavil informed them. "The process probably isn't that different...just on a larger scale".

"I thought I said no unnecessary chatter!" Saren hissed under his breath.

Lira heard a sound of disgust filter through Tavil's mask, but he did not say any more. She felt it was extremely unfair, as Saren did not seem to have a problem with Mordin or Nihlus speaking.

"The flashing lights...an alarm, maybe?" Virlen murmured.

"Set off by some kind of emergency. Enemy attack most likely given the weapons scarring," the turian specter added.

Liara examined the occasional sign that displayed alien writing, wondering what being conveyed. Sometimes a simple stick figure accompanied the writing, performing some simplistic task that was most likely the subject matter of the message. She saw Aenya recording the signs with her omnitool for later study and attempts at deciphering the language. If they could make peaceful contact with this new race, they would not have to undergo the arduous task of translating with the option of a mind-meld far simpler.

Even after one thousand years of research, the secrets of the prothean language had not been fully unlocked. Trying to decipher meaning from unfamiliar symbols was difficult when there was hardly anything to go off of. Only by meeting this new people could they gain greater understanding, and judging by the scale of their engineering, they had much to teach them.

They made their way through a series of corridors, one hardly distinguishable from the next save for exposed circuitry hanging from the ceiling in some spots. Some vents had been forced open with blackened and melted steel surrounding the gaps in the ducts. Saren's frown grew deeper as he examined the damage while the salarian STG operatives spoke in hushed tones to each other.

"Something was moving through these vents," Nihlus spoke what was on everyone's mind. He reached down, running one talon on the grated floor. "Look, blood".

There was indeed a red stain on his claw, and Mordin ran an omnitool over the sample. "Iron-based, vertebrate confirmed, possibly mammalian," he concluded.

"Some of them must have been hiding in the air vents, maybe attempting to escape our presumed invaders," Virlen said. Liara noticed he had holstered his pistol and switched to an assault rifle.

"Clever...but futile it appears," Saren said in his usual dismissive way.

"Maybe not. No sign of bodies. Whoever was in those vents might be injured, but there's a chance they survived," Virlen countered.

"All the more reason to be cautious then. An cornered and injured animal is far more dangerous than usual," Nihlus said as he hoisted himself up to check the duct with a flashlight.

"We are not dealing with animals. These are sentient beings," Aenya corrected him, looking a little miffed at his description.

"Even more dangerous then," Saren said dryly, earning a withering look from the expedition's leader.

Liara looked around, reaching down for the grate that once covered the vent opening. The metal bars were twisted and melted, but some of them were snapped and bent outwards. "Virlen, is it common for weapons to cause this much damage?" she asked.

He looked at the grate and shrugged, saying "We don't know what kind of guns they're using and what projectile they fire. The metal's brittle though, so it must have been superheated. But even with high-temperature rounds, this damage is a little much. They must have really wanted to kill whoever was in that vent".

"Firing indiscriminately. Wildly. Lack of restraint perhaps. Fear also possible," Mordin spoke, one hand at his mouth as he examined the damage.

"Fear, Doctor Solus?" a confused Aenya questioned. "Why would the ship's attackers be afraid?"

"Bars broken and bent outwards. Metal too hot on grate to rip off. Therefore, pushed from inside," Mordin reasoned.

"An interesting theory, but speculating is a waste of time," Saren snapped. "_Explorer_, any activity to note?"

"Negative, specter. No incursions into the system. No indication the derelict ship has even noticed your presence. Minimal power fluctuations detected, but nothing that has not already been observed".

"And sensors show minimal movement of survivors and none in our vicinity," Saren finished for the communications officer. "I believe you can put aside your concerns for the moment. Whatever did this is long gone".

Liara was not so sure. It did not make any sense that pirates would attack this ship and leave without killing the crew and without even attempting to commandeer the vessel. Just one more mystery to solve, she supposed. She sighed and looked one more time into the darkness of the vent. Just as she looked away, she swore she saw eyes staring back at her. Doing a double take, she looked back, seeing nothing. She shivered, a wave of cold fear washing over her. It was only her eyes playing tricks on her.

They eventually reached a large room filled with crates and machinery. A few forklifts were scattered around in the midst of lifting cargo, almost like they had been abandoned in the middle of work. "See if you can find anything of interest," Aenya urged them, and they went about breaking open some of the crates.

It was mostly just parts and electrical wiring, but there were a few crates full of what seemed like food. They did not try any, not knowing whether this species was dextro of levo amino acid based. For a moment it did not seem as if they would find anything of interest save for the strange foodstuffs among the loads and loads of ore.

Liara was going through another box filled with circuit boards and parts for machines she could not even begin to fathom when she came across something interesting. It had a grip much like a pistol, but the front was flat with four orange prongs curving back along gray body. There was no obvious barrel, so it probably was not a firearm. "_Maybe a power tool of some kind_," she thought, testing the feel of it in her hand. It was quite heavy.

"What do you have there, Dr. T'Soni?" Virlen asked, having noticed her interest in the strange implement.

"I'm not sure exactly," she shook her head, handing it over for the STG operative to examine.

"Hmm, resembles a weapon of some kind. Where did you find it?"

"In this box of equipment," she answered.

"Tavil'Kala, any thoughts?" Virlen asked the engineer.

Tavil ran his omnitool over the object and played around with it, the front end sparking as he pushed a part of it further into the housing. "It's powered up. Reading similarly to a mining laser, I think. It reminds me of something similar we use back aboard the fleet. I can only speculate about what it..."

His thought was cut off as the front end glowed blue and fired a bolt of some kind of energy, which smashed into a pile of food and set it on fire. Tavil was so surprised that he dropped the object, whatever it was discharging again as it hit the floor and almost burning a hole through Aenya if she had been standing only a few inches to her right.

Saren snarled, stalking to where a dumbfounded Tavil was standing and pushing him violently away. "Idiot Quarian! Your incompetence will be the death of us all!"

Tavil shrank back, his head bowed. He murmured something that sounded like an apology.

As Saren chewed out the shocked quarian, Mordin picked up the, for the moment forgotten, object and examined it closely before checking the scar the second energy bolt had caused. "Hmm, explains superheated steel. Ionized plasma. Interesting," he thought aloud before continuing. "Most likely not weapon. Balance off. Tavil most likely correct...mining implement".

"Easily repurposed as a weapon though," Virlen pointed out.

"Like on a mining ship boarded by armed raiders," Nihlus finished the thought for him.

"We have more to fear from useless members of our own group than these mysterious pirates," Saren snorted, sending a venomous look at the chastened quarian.

Aenya still seemed a bit shaken up from almost taking a bolt of plasma to the chest, but she recovered quickly. "It was an accident. We have to remember that we are dealing with unfamiliar technology and act accordingly. Just be more careful in the future," she told Tavil.

He nodded, not meeting her gaze. Virlen took back the plasma emitter from Mordin and popped the magazine. "Huh, so that's how it works". He searched through the crate where it had been found and produced more magazines before handing them over to Liara. "Here, you found it. It's yours".

"Oh, I couldn't. I've never even fired a gun in my life," she put her hands in front of her in a gesture of denial.

"Think of it as a souvenir," he grinned. "This is how you load and unload it. Don't know how many shots are in a charge though. You fire by depressing the trigger here. Just try not to shoot any of us".

Liara blushed and offered a murmured word of thanks. She attached the plasma tool to the magnetic strip of her belt.

"Hopefully, that is the last of the excitement for the day," Aenya sighed. "Specter Arterius, would you help me with this door? I am not sure how to open it".

Most of the doors in the corridors had opened automatically once they had moved lose enough, but this one seemed sealed tight. It was a large blast door with several red spinning lights around it. Part of it was painted in diagonal stripes of yellow and black, and large red letters were printed on each side. Liara knew red was typically the color used to warn, and she wondered again what the words meant.

"I think this is the manual release," Saren spoke, as he wrenched the lever up from its locked position. Locks along the blast door's perimeter slid out of place and hydraulic fluid vented from several vents.

"This might be the entrance to the main part of the ship," Virlen pointed out as the door groaned and began to slowly ascend.

For a moment, white clouds of vaporized coolant obscured the entrance, but after a few moments, the haze began to clear. Liara heard screaming, not realizing it was her own piercing shrieks echoing throughout the warehouse.

* * *

"Goddess, I hate all this waiting. Worst part of the job," Carrere complained.

"Funny, I thought the worst part was hearing you bitch," her fellow pilot Anella said dryly.

"Oh, screw you," she glared back at her, giving her a playful punch on the arm.

"Hey, I'm open to the possibility," Anella gave her a suggestive look.

"Your mom would kill you if you introduced your _asari_ girlfriend to her," Carrere smirked.

"Eh, she's a prejudiced, old witch anyway. Who cares what she thinks," she shrugged.

"I'm dating someone at the moment".

"What, that salarian you met at the bar in Nos Astra? How many weeks does he have left to live? Three? Four?" Anella smirked.

"Oh, so you're not prejudiced?" Carrere said indignantly.

"It's not prejudice if they really _do_ have the lifespan of the Thessian fly".

"Do you know how amazingly offensive you sound?" Carrere gave her a sharp glare.

"Please, don't give me that superior look. You think it's funny," Anella shot back.

"Not when you're making fun of how long my boyfriend has got to live," she countered.

"Fine, whatever. You're right. I'm a terrible person," Anella remarked airily. "Well how about it then? Hate sex is the best sex, or so I've heard".

"Ugh, no thank you," Carrere's face scrunched up as if she had just smelled something horrible.

"Suit yourself," Anella shrugged. "So what do you think they're going to find out there?"

"Trouble. If you ask me this is stupid as all hell. We don't know anything about these aliens, but here we are on their ship, which may or may not have been attacked by someone else. If things start looking bad, I say we book it," Carrere answered with a frown.

"Even with two specters and two of those STG spooks? I think they know what they're doing".

"Please," Carrere scoffed. "Those fools cause more problems than they solve. Look at the krogan".

"What about them? My dad's a krogan," Anella raised an eyebrow.

"I know that, idiot. I mean, it's not like I've been to your house and visited your parents about a hundred times," she said in an exasperated tone. "I'm saying that they uplifted them before they were ready. Salarians don't exactly have a good track record with new races. Krogan...Rachni..."

"Hey, what are you doing there?" Anella said sharply.

"Nothing..."

"Don't think you're going to smoke in here," she said forbiddingly, pointing to the pack she had just taken out of her flightsuit.

"Oh come on! Just one?"

"We both know it won't stop at one," Anella said, as she narrowed her eyes. "You aren't ruining my lungs with that poison. Take it outside!"

"How am I supposed to smoke in a vacuum, genius?" Carrere argued.

"Through the airlock," Anella said, pointing to the back of the hangar.

"I can't go over there!"

"Why not?"

Carrere looked away, her cheeks blushing purple. "I don't know...the specter said not to leave...and its dark," she mumbled.

Anella laughed. "You're so precious. Such a baby!"

"Shut your mouth!" Carrere snapped as she grabbed her helmet and put it on with an overdramatic flourish. "It'll be your fault if I get killed or kidnapped by aliens!"

"Can't promise that I'll attend your funeral," Anella smirked.

"Bitch," Carrere muttered as she opened the hatch. She made her way to the hangar's interior, still cursing her fellow pilot under her breath as she approached the airlock.

They had met soon after Carrere first earned her wings and became friends soon after. They always tried to get assigned to the same missions, as Carrere could not imagine working with anyone else. Most people they knew wondered how they were even friends given the amount of vitriol that passed between them, but she thought a relationship was not really strong if it was not tested by a few fights or many as it were.

Her advances had always confused Carrere though. Anella always passed it off as teasing, but Carrere knew that she was always more ill-tempered than usual when she was dating. Maybe if she would just be serious for once, and tell her how she really felt. She shook her head and dismissed the thought. It would never work anyway.

The hiss of breathable air woke her up from her daydreaming, and she stepped into the gloomy corridor. Florescent lights flickered and dimmed as spinning red lights caused shadows to dance along the walls. It was like something out of a low-budget horror movie, something she would see with Anella at cheap theaters late at night.

She removed her helmet, dropping it to the ground as she lit up. She sucked the herbal smoke into her lungs and blew out a funnel of vapor with a contented sigh. She needed this. It was always hard to concentrate on these missions, and the boring ones were far worse than the tense ones.

She closed her eyes, and that is when she heard it. A chittering sound, like the noise of insect legs. She heard it in the walls, but when she tried to listen closer, it would stop. She tried to ignore it, but it just seemed to get louder. Carrere began feeling a little nervous as the sound persisted, but she just shook her head and dismissed the feeling. She was not a little child who got scared at a strange noise.

Carrere continued to smoke, her paranoia increasing with every moment. She turned around to look behind her, certain something had been there a moment ago, but there was nothing. The feeling that something was watching her just kept building, and suddenly she wanted nothing more than to return to the shuttle. She took a step to reach the airlock when the lights died.

The darkness was pressing in on her. It was claustrophobic; she could not see anything, and she vaguely acknowledged that she was starting to panic. She heard her breaths now leaving her lungs rapidly, almost to the point of hyperventilation. Something was wrong. Something did not feel right. There was something about this ship that sent a chill through her body.

She willed herself to calm down. Everything was fine. The specter had even confirmed that there were no life forms near to their position. She was completely alone. There had only been a power failure. It figured on a damaged ship after all.

Remembering her omnitool, she activated it and felt her anxiety dissipate at the sight of the soft, orange glow filling the corridor. She swiveled on her heel, checking the entire hallway and finding nothing that had not been there a few seconds ago.

Letting out a sigh of relief, she tried the airlock control panel to open the inner seal, but apparently the power outage affected the door controls as well. She slumped to the ground, swearing at her terrible luck and settling in for a long wait.

The chittering seemed to have stopped, only the soft whir of the life support system and her own soft breaths breaking the silence. "Anella, the power just went out. I'm stuck in the corridor leading to the airlock. What should I do?" she spoke into her communicator, but the only response she received was static. That was strange. Was something blocking the signal?

Time passed, and Carrere wondered why Anella had not come looking for her. She had received no messages either, and she was sure that it was past the point when her friend would get worried. She felt a bit of anger rise up in her chest, as she wondered why she had not come looking yet.

Just as her temper started to get the better of her, the lights flickered and she yelled out, "Finally!" The lights immediately shut off. "Shit!"

She punched the airlock door in a fit of rage, the sound echoing throughout the confined passage. As she tried to calm down, a bang seeming to come from all sides at once answered the echoing sound of her fist hitting the door. Carrere looked around, wondering where it came from when she heard the sound of movement. It was coming from the ceiling, the distinctive noise of thin metal depressing as something made its way through the air ducts.

Her pistol was immediately in her hand, and she aimed it at the ceiling. Whatever it was moved slowly, like it was stalking its prey. It moved closer to her, the noise of its approach getting nearer every second. She pressed herself against the airlock, crouching to keep distance between her and the ceiling. It seemed to pause when it reached her, and she heard sniffing, like an animal searching for a scent.

She did not hesitate, firing a few rounds into the air vent. Something screeched and scampered away. She was breathing heavily, fear having almost completely taken control of her. Carrere listened, but she did not hear it come back. Whatever it was, it sounded more like an animal than something sentient. Her pistol stayed aimed above her, as she silently prayed for the power to come back on, so she was not trapped in here.

"Come on, please," she pleaded, looking desperately at the door.

With the sound of a generator powering up, the lights turned back on, and Carrere was immediately through the airlock door, her helmet on as she waited for the room to depressurize.

As soon as the airlock hissed open, she made a beeline for the shuttle, jumping through the opened hatch and closing it behind her. She panted, pausing for a moment to catch her breath. "Goddess, you won't believe what happened out there," she spoke quickly as she headed to the cockpit.

The first thing she saw was the blood spatter on the console. Her mind went blank as she stepped into the cramped space. Anella's face was turned toward hers, her mouth slightly and glassy eyes wide open in look of frozen surprise. A bloody hole was punctured through the center of her forehead. Her chest had been ripped open, ribs splayed outward like something had wrenched them out of place. Carrere stepped back, her boot getting stuck to the ground as she pulled it from the sticky pools of blood.

"Oh, no, no, no...Goddess, Anella, no...," she whimpered. "Please no..."

Her eyes looked everywhere at once as she swept her weapon around the enclosed space of the shuttle, searching for whatever did this. The shuttle was empty. Her friend's killer had apparently fled, but it could still be lying in wait.

Shuddering, she reached for the communications panel, her hand shaking as she wiped away some of the blood. It was everywhere. "_Calm down, Carrere. Deep breaths_," she told herself, trying desperately to focus. It was tough when it felt like she would throw up. She was covered in her friend's blood, still warm to the touch. "_Got to warn them_".

* * *

Liara wretched, her throat burning from the noxious bile. Aenya was standing beside her, patting her back and trying not to look disgusted. It was difficult both with the horrible sounds coming from Liara and the scene beyond the blast door.

They were piled there, dozens of bodies lying in puddle of blood and gore. Their faces were twisted into masks of horror, their mouths open in silent screams. They had been ripped apart, their organs literally falling out of shredded body cavities, some of the aliens looking like they had died desperately trying to keep their intestines from falling out of their slashed abdomens.

The aliens looked as if they had been frantically trying to get through the door. They must have been gathered there, pounding on the unyielding steel, trapped with whatever had subjected them to such a grisly fate.

"Gutted and dismembered," Nihlus said in a disgusted tone. "Looks more like the work of animals than anything else.

Mordin was kneeling near the carnage, turning over some of the corpses to examine them. "Bodies lacking wounds consistent with projectile weaponry. Stabbed. Slashed. Unnecessary brutality. No justification," he sniffed.

Saren seemed unaffected by the scene of death surrounding them. He nudged the bodies with his boot and picked up another of those plasma emitters they had found earlier. "These aliens look remarkably like asari. Well, the few that are still mostly intact do," he observed. "A few were armed as well. I wonder how their attackers got so close to inflict these wounds".

"Their attackers could have been trained, or they had experience with this kind of slaughter," Virlen guessed. "Look at these aliens. None of them are wearing armor, and they only had a few weapons between them. They're miners most likely, not soldiers".

"They were trying to make it to the hangar. They must have been pursued here and trapped," Saren said.

"A few must have escaped. There were no spacecraft in the hangar," Aenya reasoned hopefully.

"Or they got destroyed by whoever attacked this ship," Nihlus shrugged.

"There's not a lot we know. It could be dangerous to move deeper into the ship especially with civilians tagging along," Virlen said, pointing to Liara and Aenya. "Might be a good idea to call for backup".

"And wait for the politicians to authorize a better armed expedition? Not happening," Nihlus snorted.

"Reinforcements unlikely. Counsel concerned about media scrutiny," Mordin adopted his classic thinking pose. "Doctors Parr, T'Soni. Safer for you to return".

"Oh, no. You're not getting rid of us that easily," Aenya gave the salarian doctor an impressive glare. "If we find any of these aliens...alive, you will need us to establish communication".

"Hey, I'm fine going back to the ship," Tavil said wryly.

"It really might not be that bad of an idea," Liara backed him up, her voice hoarse and shaking.

"I agree. We'll be better off without the dead weight," Saren sneered, his mouth opening to release another round of disparaging remarks when his communicator beeped. "What is it?" he barked.

There was only static for a moment, but then a panicked voice spoke, "Oh thank the Goddess! They haven't got you yet! They killed her! Please, you have to get back here!"

Saren seemed momentarily taken aback, but he quickly recovered. "Who is this? Stop whimpering and speak clearly!"

"Carrere," she managed to get out after struggling to stop sucking in air like a suffocating fish. It sounded like she was hyperventilating, and there were more than a few muffled sobs coming over the line as well.

"Who?" Saren snapped, growing more irritated by the second.

"Our shuttle pilot," Mordin stated, and for a second Liara thought she saw a look of distaste as his black eyes passed over Saren. He activated his own communicator and spoke, "Lieutenant Seris, Operative Mordin Solus speaking. Please tell me everything".

"Oh, Dr. Solus. Anella, she...she's dead! Killed!" the pilot spoke shakily. "I don't know what happened. I came back to the ship, and there was blood. Goddess, so much blood!"

" First Lieutenant Anella Tao is dead?" Mordin asked. "How?"

"She...she was stabbed. Her chest ri...ripped open and her head impaled...there's blood all over the console, on my hands..."

"You witnessed this?"

"N...no. I left the shuttle to...have a smoke. The power went out. There are...things in the walls. I could hear them!" she spoke hysterically. "Something in the vent was stalking me. I shot at it, and it fled. Anella...when I got back..."

"You were not to leave the shuttle!" Saren growled, his eyes darting immediately to the air vents around them.

"Moving through air ducts..." Mordin said gravely. They all knew what he was thinking about. "Shuttle secure, yes?"

"Y...yes. Whatever was here...was gone by the time I made it back. I checked the interior of the craft, and the sensors show no life signs in the hangar".

"We would have picked up life signs if they were moving toward the hangar. Something's not right," Virlen muttered.

"They could be shielded, or our sensors might just not pick them up," Tavil suggested as everyone looked at him, not realizing that such a thing was possible.

"How so?" Nihlus asked.

"The sensors detect body heat and indicators of the respiratory and circulatory system. Maybe these aliens don't have those biological functions," he shrugged, like it was obvious or something.

"A disturbing thought," Virlen said. But from what we know about their anatomy, they seem fairly similar to any of us".

"Maybe we're not alone," Saren spoke darkly. "Pilot, secure the ship for our immediate extraction. The mission has been compromised".

"I...I will, sir," the pilot spoke meekly.

"Any objections?" Saren snapped, looking mostly at Nihlus.

"There are too many unknowns. Continuing the mission presents too high a risk to the civilians," his partner said.

"Agreed. Objectives impossible to achieve without unacceptable risk," Mordin nodded.

"I'll prep the shuttle and..." Carrere said over the communicator before the line went silent.

They waited a few seconds before Mordin spoke questioningly, "Lieutenant Seris?"

"No..." the single word sounded over the comm. line, "no, this can't be happening...Goddess help me!"

"Lieutenant, What's wrong?" Saren yelled over the line, even his voice starting to sound a bit concerned.

"It's...it's inside her...Goddess no...oh no, please...there's something under her skin! It's eating her from the inside!" her voice grew steadily more panicked as words devolved into screams. As they listened in growing horror, the sound of something roaring joined her screeching cries followed closely by several gunshots and then just static.

Liara just stood there with wide eyes, wondering what kind of monstrous thing could make that sound. She jumped as she felt something on her shoulder, turning to see Virlen looking at her with a grim expression. "Dr. T'Soni, we need to leave, _now_.

She could only nod dumbly, as he led her away, her eyes straying to a grated vent. Malevolent eyes stared back...

* * *

**AN: Dead Space 3 has me interested in the series again, and since I always enjoy crossovers, I decided to write one. This is set at least ten years before Mass Effect, so some of the characters are younger as you probably noticed. Hope you enjoy.**


	2. The Survivor

_One day prior to the events on the USG Ishimura:_

Liara was overwhelmed. She was used to dealing with a low budget and insufficient funds from what few grants she could cobble together. They would travel to far-flung worlds on old, clunky transports that looked as if they would shake apart the next time they went through a relay. It was dangerous too with many transport captains being notorious for taking their passengers' credits and then making double when they sold them to batarian slavers.

It was the opposite on this mission, the sleek curves of the _Explorer_ a testament to asari fusion of aesthetic beauty with engineering practicality. The inside of the ship was even more impressive, the shining floors glittering like new with the latest holographic consoles installed. There was a fully equipped research lab with equipment she would not even had access to at the lab back at Serrice. Someone with a lot of credits was either funding this expedition, or the Council was clearly involved.

She wandered the lab, her eyes raking over what looked to be a miniature particle accelerator when she bumped into a tall salarian. "Oh, I'm sorry! I wasn't paying attention. This lab is so amazing!" she babbled.

"Dr. T'Soni," the salarian gave her a once over. "Looking forward to working with you. Unprecedented find. Exciting possibilities".

He spoke so fast that Liara could barely keep up. "I'm sorry, I'm not sure that we've met..." she trailed off, looking away in embarrassment. She hated being so awkward around strangers.

"Apology unnecessary. Recent addition to team. Ignorance of prior members expected," he waved off her concern. "Doctor Mordin Solus. Attaché to representative of the Salarian Union in regard to present mission".

He held out his hand and she took it hesitantly before realizing whom she was talking to. "Goddess! Professor Solus!" she exclaimed, instantly taking his hand in both of her own. "It's such an honor! I attended some of you guest lectures on genetic manipulation. You had me dazzled!"

"Ah, yes. The application of gene manipulation related to virus infection vectors. Good, light work. Remember you asking question. Concerned ethics of research, yes?" he spoke rapidly.

Liara was startled by the clarity of his memory. "Professor Solus, you actually remember the question I asked?"

"Indeed. Whether application to medical treatment outweighs application to biological warfare. Interesting issue. Considered it momentarily. Dismissed it ultimately. Presupposes advances in weaponized biological agents a negative outcome," he explained.

"Oh, well...I'm glad you took my input so seriously," she spoke, not really knowing what to say.

"Always consider differing opinions. Arrogant otherwise. No room in science for narrow-mindedness," the scientist continued, somehow still paying attention to her even as he examined a slide through a microscope.

"Well, I'm sure you're busy..." she trailed off.

"Yes, much to do. Risk of cross-species infection high. Must prepare".

Feeling like an overeager student who had just been dismissed, she began to walk away, but a question held her back. "Professor Solus, are you here as the expedition's lead researcher or as a physician?"

"Oh no. On mission for Special Tasks Group. Field work. Will serve as emergency medic if necessary," he corrected her before turning back to his work. "Here if needed".

She left the lab, feeling a little shocked at the thought of a renowned expert in the field of genetics like Mordin Solus being a cloak and dagger spy in his spare time.

"Met the good doctor, have you?" someone spoke to her as she was lost in daydreams.

She turned to see another salarian, this one younger with a white and greenish complexion grinning at her. "Uh, yes. Dr, Solus was very gracious. It's an honor to work with someone so distinguished".

His smile grew broader, and he said, "I always find it funny how a ninety year old asari can praise the experience of a twenty year old salarian. I think there's some irony to be found there".

"By my own people's standards, I am considered little more than a child," she reminded him.

"Pretty impressive for a child to become a doctor then. I've read through your articles. I believe you will be an asset to the team especially if this supposed prothean connection turns out to be true," he assured her. "I'm Virlen by the way, STG".

"It's nice to meet you, Operative...?" she left the question in the air, not wanting to be too informal with someone she just met.

"Just Virlen. I'm not as well known as Dr. Solus, so I like to keep the information to a minimum. No offense".

"I'm not offended," she blurted out. "I mean...I would expect STG agents to be less open with their identities. That is why I was so surprised about Dr. Solus," she explained.

Virlen just shrugged. "Mordin doesn't care much about maintaining secrecy. He figures he can always kill you later to protect his connections with STG". As Liara looked at him with wide eyes, he smirked. "Just kidding...or so you think".

Liara laughed halfheartedly, inwardly wondering if he was serious or not. The STG did have something of a reputation.

"I see you have met our resident spooks," an authoritative voice spoke from behind them. Liara turned to see the ship's captain, Pietra, her face set in a look of extreme disapproval.

Relax, captain. We're not going to corrupt this young, innocent asari scientist to our dark, unscrupulous ways," Virlen smirked.

"Don't remind me of her age," she scoffed. "I swear the matriarchs were downing shots of ryncol when they were making personnel decisions".

Liara felt mortified but also angry at being dismissed so summarily. She caught Virlen's eye, and he gave her a wink as the captain continued her rant. "Specters, spies, and children...this is what they give me to deal with?" she shook her head. "Anyway, her highness Matriarch Alsita has requested that the team assemble for a briefing before we enter the relay. Don't want to keep her waiting".

She stalked off as Virlen snorted, trying to hold back laughter. Liara looked at him questioningly, and he said, "If you think she's bad, wait until you meet our senior specter".

* * *

_The Derelict - flight deck:_

Carrere collapsed against a wall, her legs no longer able to support her. She felt cold and dizzy, her eyes unfocusing as black spots clouded her vision. She was beginning to lose feeling in her body, her injured arm in particular completely numb. She held the wounded limb closer to her chest, the strips of her torn flight suit she used as an emergency tourniquet and bandage already soaked with blood. She could not even move her fingers on that hand either from the muscle of nerve damage, probably both. Exposure to vacuum had not helped any either, freezing the open wound.

She had been speaking to Dr. Solus when something...happened inside Anella's body. She first saw a tendril wriggle out from the wound in her forehead, her skin rippling and stretching like something was moving under it. She was too shocked and repulsed to react, allowing the transformation to progress further. Her friend's jaw had split, yellow bone elongating into tusks as blood leaked down her throat. Anella's arms snapped and contorted into impossible angles, her wrist bones penetrating through the skin and turning into long, sickle-like implements.

Carrere could not process what she was seeing, not even cognizant of her panicked words spoken into the communicator. It was not until Anella, no, the _thing_ that was inhabiting her corpse seized her wrist in its slavering jaws that she woke up to reality.

The tusks cut right through her flesh and crushed the thin bones that got in the way. Even as agony threatened to cause a blackout, she tried desperately to pull her wrist from that horrific maw of crooked fangs. Somehow, she managed to find her gun and unload a full thermal clip into the beast's face, separating the lower part of its jaw from a mass of pulpy flesh and brain.

The thing refused to die though, its bladed arms flailing about, trying to slash and stab her. Only the cramped quarters of the shuttle saved her, the blades getting stuck in the instrumentation panel. As it struggled to free itself, she popped the heat sink and shot at it again while she backed up in an uncoordinated retreat. It's chest exploded with blood and bits of shredded flesh, but it just kept moving, its trapped arms straining to reach her.

There was no other option. She fled. She reached the hatch and closed it behind her, hoping that it would least buy her a little time. The monster's jaw was still embedded in her wrist, so she gingerly tried to remove it. It was stuck there though, and in a moment of temporary insanity brought on by intense fear and pain, she ripped it out, the serrated tusks shredding what was left of the muscles in her arm. The notched edge even pulled a few strings of tendon out from the wound, which she picked off and futilely inserted back into her ruined limb.

Already Carrere could feel the cold of vacuum chilling her exposed skin from the tatters of her sleeve, and she stumbled to the airlock, running without regard to her profusely bleeding injury until she was sure she was safe.

So there she sat, collapsed against a few pipes in some dark corridor, barely able to summon the will to stay conscious. She had lost too much blood. She knew it. She could feel death beginning to take hold of her, the essential functions of her body beginning to slow and shut down. Delirium began to set in, her thoughts unfocused, as she realized that this is how she was going to die: alone on some alien ship, mauled by some monstrous parasite in her friend's body, without anyone to call for help.

"_No, I'm not going to die here. Not in the fucking middle of nowhere. Not in a pool of my own blood, Goddess damn it_," she thought, her anger at the situation rising. "_I still have one option left_".

She looked at her injured arm, removing the bandage to watch the slow ooze of blood seep from the bite. Raising her shaking, uninjured hand, Carrere activated her omnitool, a blade solidifying and spinning into position.

"_Set_ _for incinerate_," she gritted her teeth, tongues of flame forming along the edge of the omniblade.

Carrere held it over her bleeding wrist, breathing rapidly as she tried to steady the shaking blade. For a moment, she hesitated, but Carrere knew it was either this or a slow death. She closed her eyes and brought it down.

* * *

The shuttle was a mess when they got back to the hangar. The hatch had been torn from its bearings and flung a few meters away. The cockpit was trashed, long jagged gashes filled with severed and sparking wire running down the instrumentation panel. The glass of the viewscreen was smashed, cracks arrayed from several points were it looked like something had struck it. Blood coated everything, the dark liquid spattered about the cockpit like Liara imagined a set in one of those low-budget Nos Astra horror vids would look like.

"Nihlus, find anything out of place?" Saren asked as he ran a talon down the edge of one of the tears.

"Other than the lack of corpses, no," his partner concluded.

Saren was quiet for a moment before he spoke in a voice barely more than a whisper, "If something had torn off the hatch, it would make sense that the pilot would have reacted to it. She did not though, She just screamed about something inside her copilot's body..."

"You're saying that whatever attacked her was in here when she returned to the ship," Nihlus concluded.

"Seems the likeliest scenario," he said, still examining the cockpit for any indication of what happened there.

Mordin looked grave. "Description of copilot during message troubling. Parasite possible".

"She would have had to have been infected," Saren said. "There was no opportunity. Plus it does not explain how she was killed in the first place given her chest was apparently ripped open, and it does not explain these slash marks".

"Agree. Need more evidence to support logical conclusion. Too many unknowns," the STG agent shook his head.

"The attacker could have been cloaking," Virlen speculated. "The level of engineering that is obviously present in this ship suggests they might be advanced enough".

"There's no question they're advanced enough," Saren snapped. "Look at the giant hole on the planet".

"Do you think they're more technologically advanced than we are?" Aenya asked.

Saren gave it some thought before concluding, "Maybe, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that they are obviously a threat to Citadel space. I think our mission priorities have changed. Our mission is now to gauge the threat this new species poses to the Citadel".

"They might not pose any threat. We have no evidence that they are responsible for this," Aenya cautioned.

Saren gave her a contemptuous look before saying condescendingly, "Respectfully doctor, two members of our team are dead. I think establishing peaceful first contact has been thrown out the airlock at this point".

"It's moot anyway," Nihlus spoke up, trying to defuse the tension. "We can't stay here without risking Dr. Parr, Dr. T'Soni, and Tavil'Kala. I say we call for the other shuttle and get the hell out. Saren, you and me can scout the ship after the civilians are safe and we regroup".

Aenya was too shaken by the deaths of the two pilots to argue this time. As they discussed their course of action, Liara left the shuttle, her lingering nausea only exacerbated by the smell of blood and death. Even the air filters in her helmet did nothing to help. She did not go far, knowing that the pilots had met their end by separating. She hoped the Goddess would watch over them.

She saw Virlen approaching from behind, the STG operative making sure to walk toward her at a wide angle, so she could see him out of the corner of her eye. It was considerate of him, making sure he did not surprise her. "Feeling alright, Dr. T'Soni?" he asked as she turned around to meet him.

"A little queasy," she admitted.

"And here with you being an archaeologist and all, I thought you'd be used to dead bodies," he grinned as she gave him a withering look. "Okay, that was tasteless, I admit.".

"I don't think this is the time for jokes," she murmured.

"I disagree. It's times like these where humor's the most important. Try it, it will take your mind off things," he suggested.

"You really don't need to check up on me like this. I'm fine," she insisted.

"When someone says something like that, it tells me that they're not fine," he pointed out as he took a seat beside her. "You know, the first time I ever saw someone die was on my third mission with the STG. Batarians were encroaching on our turf, so command wanted to send a message. I saw Mordin light a guy on fire and watch as he burned to death. He didn't even bother shooting him to put the poor bastard out of his misery. Solus was ice cold. Took me a while to get over that one".

Liara did not respond so he continued, "It can't be easy for someone like you to see a pile of bodies torn up like that. You just need to put it out of your mind. Dwelling on it's not going to do you any good".

Liara snorted. "Easy for you to say. Salarians can compartmentalize memories".

"And I thank whatever god or evolutionary mutation is responsible for that," he laughed as Liara giggled a little as well.

"Thank you. You are very sweet," she complimented him.

"Anytime, Dr. T'Soni".

"Liara's fine. I mean, we are colleagues, right?" she said, averting her eyes and blushing.

"Sure, Liara. We're a team, and teammates lift each other up and give each other a kick in the cloaca when they need it," he stood up, reaching down to pull her up as well. "Let's get back to the shuttle. Too dangerous to be out here alone".

When they got back, Saren was in the midst of yelling into his communicator. "So you are telling me that the matriarch took the last shuttle to the planet's surface? For what might I ask?"

"Matriarch Alsita wished to visit the alien settlement on the planet," the response came. "She could not have known your shuttle would be..."

"I do not care about the matriarch's whims or what she knew," Saren interrupted the communications officer. "All I know is that we are stuck on this ship with no shot at extraction for a least a few hours trapped either by murderous aliens we cannot track or some parasitic outbreak!"

"I understand that you are angry, Specter Arterius, but I am sure Matriarch Alsita will leave the planet as soon as she is informed of your situation," the officer tried in vain to placate him.

"How soon can we expect extraction?" he asked curtly.

"It may take some time for the ground team to return to the shuttle. They were some distance away the last time they checked in..."

"Where are the pilots? Why can't the shuttle pick them up?"

"The pilots accompanied the matriarch to the abandoned settlement..."

Saren looked like he was about to bust a vessel, but when he spoke again his tone was deathly cold. "I see. We will wait then. I expect to be kept updated, understand?"

"Yes, of course. Just to let you know though, we did have an incident aboard to the ship while you were away," the communications officer relayed to them.

"What kind of _incident_?"

"One of the crew members seemed to have some kind of seizure. When the medical team arrived, she tried to attack them. She has been sedated and is being monitored".

"When we return, Dr. Solus can see to her," Saren said curtly. "Arterius out".

"A seizure? I don't like the sound of that," Nihlus spoke darkly.

"Possibility of coincidence. Disorders with seizures as symptom common among asari. Due to element zero exposure most likely," Mordin explained.

"Coincidences tend to get people killed," Saren growled.

"Not discounting possibility of outside cause. Circumstantial evidence of possible alien infection. _Explorer_ unexposed, however. Hmm, other possibilities. No direct evidence of pilots' cause of death. Artificially induced mania? Fails to explain absence of bodies..."

"Doctor Solus, please," Aenya sighed.

"Apologies, so many questions, little evidence," Mordin finished.

"So we're stuck here, and there could be a crazy, alien virus infecting this ship? Tavil said incredulously. "Keelah, it just keeps getting better. With my immune system..."

"You were not exposed to the open air," Nihlus pointed out. "I think you're fine".

"What if my suit's filters let some of the virus through? The thing's not full proof! A few particles always make it past," he insisted, sounding extremely worried.

"We don't know if it's a virus yet. We're just speculating. Calm down," Aenya spoke gently.

"Dr. Parr correct. Operating on assumption infection parasitic in nature, not viral," Mordin clarified unhelpfully.

"That makes me feel so much better," Tavil muttered.

"Excuse me," Liara spoke up. "What is that?"

Everyone looked to where she was pointing, seeing what looked to be a jawbone discarded haphazardly on the hangar deck. Virlen was closest, so he began to reach down to grab it when Mordin warned, "No! Do not touch. Possibly infected".

Virlen recoiled as Mordin brushed past him, reaching down to snag the jawbone with a medical instrument. He took a sample and looked to his omnitool as it was scanned. "Appears to be partial jawbone. Shape of teeth suggests carnivore. Mandible hinged most likely," he spoke rapidly. "Traces of blood on tusk. Asari. DNA suggests two separate subjects. Need to compare to samples from Lieutenants Tao and Seris. High chance of a match".

"Oh goddess," Liara gasped, realizing the implications.

"Eaten alive..." Nihlus grimaced. "Would explain the lack of bodies".

"Only if they were completely consumed," Saren shook his head. "In the amount of time it took us to get back here? I doubt it".

"And that must have been torn out of its mouth, whatever it was. Suggests a struggle, a struggle _it _lost," Virlen suggested.

"Running test on tissue sample...hmm," Mordin spoke, his face becoming grave. "Possible contamination? No, impossible, DNA damage suggests recent mutation. Cellular structure compromised".

"What did you find, doctor?" Aenya asked.

"DNA of creature matches that of asari," he answered flatly.

"That can't be right," Aenya said in disbelief. "Your test must have been flawed".

Mordin gave her a look. "Mistake always possibility. Chances of such infinitesimal, however. Test results are clear".

"But what does that mean? Asari obviously do not have tusks!" a disbelieving Liara spoke.

"Evidence of recent catalyst driving cellular division. Mutation. Transformation of tissue. Cause unknown. Implications disturbing," his eyes narrowed as he looked deep in thought.

"Hey, I'm picking up life signs near our position," Virlen warned.

"How near?" Saren said quickly.

"Not past the blast door it looks like. It does not appear to be moving," he checked the radar.

"Everyone, get ready to move," Saren ordered.

"_We're_ going out there too?" Tavil said aghast.

"Some of us have little to no combat training. It might be best if we stay with the shuttle," Aenya suggested.

"The last two who stayed with the shuttle alone got butchered," Saren sneered. "We move as a single unit. Separating is the worst thing we can do now. I can't protect you if I'm not with you".

"You have a point," the elder asari conceded after thinking it over.

Liara could sympathize with Tavil. She wanted nothing more than to stay here, protected by the specters and STG agents while they waited for the shuttle to arrive. She felt like a coward. It was worse than that though; she was so craven that she could not even bring herself to voice her opinion.

"Not looking so good, Liara," Virlen said to her. "Relax, I got your back".

"Thanks," she said weakly. "I'm afraid I will not be much use returning the favor".

"Hey, I'd much rather have someone who never even held a gun at my back than Saren. Bastard would probably shoot me," he grinned.

"Hopefully not," Liara smiled. "Shall we?"

"Don't get too eager now. I think the alien parasites can stand to wait a bit".

* * *

Carrere moaned, her eyes fluttering open as the throbbing pain in her arm woke her from a fitful sleep. She must have passed out, the agony of her self-inflicted amputation too much to bear. She looked at the stump, seeing that she must have managed to bind the wound before passing out. The bandage looked clean for the most part, so at least the bleeding had stopped.

Her vision was hazy, everything seemingly drained of color and flickering slightly. She felt light-headed, and there was little feeling throughout her body save for the gnawing pain in her arm. She though vaguely that the blood loss must be decreasing oxygen flow to her brain, but she figured she was okay at least for the moment if she could still conclude that.

"Maybe it's not the blood loss, you know," Anella said. "Maybe you're just losing your mind".

Carrere looked over to Anella, the stain of blood running down her front now a dry black and her eyes and mouth glowing a sickly yellow-white. "I'm not losing it," she countered. "For instance, I know you're just a hallucination brought about by oxygen deprivation".

"Well, I guess you'd know better than I," Anella let out a rattling laugh. "But I think anyone who saw their best friend murdered, had her blood on her hands, all due to her abandoning that friend might develop some issues".

"I didn't abandon you!" she protested. "I was stuck during the power outage. I couldn't get to you. I didn't know you were in trouble!"

"You heard the monsters in the walls. You knew I was in danger, but you only worried about yourself," Anella accused.

"No it's not true. I didn't...I didn't mean..." she stammered.

"You're the one who killed me, Carrere," she spoke coldly. "You _murdered_ me. I though you loved me".

"I did! I do! You're my friend," her voice shook, tears running down her cheeks.

"You can make it up to me, you know," Anella pointed out.

"How? I'll do anything. Just please don't hate me," she begged.

"All you have to do is MAKE US WHOLE," her voice grew demonic as she wrapped her hands around Carrere's neck.

Carrere gagged and choked, clawing desperately with her one good hand against her friend's vice-like grip. Gasping, she woke, the apparition of Anella gone. She reached up to feel her neck, the skin raw and scratches leaving a smear of blood on her fingers. "_Goddess, I'm going crazy_," she thought. There was no way her murdered friend was really there.

"_Is this common when you're dying?_" she asked herself. She knew about cases where those near death saw deceased family members and other visions from those trashy, pseudo-documentaries she liked to watch. The people on those programs always gushed about how soothing the visions were and how at peace they felt. No one talked about having a nightmare.

"It was only a dream," she whispered, trying to convince herself. "Just a dream".

She needed it be true. Her body was already wrecked; she did not need her mind failing her as well.

"Need to contact the others," she grimaced, struggling to activate her communicator. Fighting and running for her life made her forget about the team for a while, and she did not know how much time passed when she was unconscious.

"Is anyone there?" she called out weakly, hoping they would pick up.

"Lieutenant Seris, assumed you dead. Pleased to find assumption incorrect," the hyperactive voice of Mordin spoke into her ear.

"Doctor Solus, please...I need help. I'm injured, and I don't know where I am," she said desperately.

"Already on route to nearest life sign. Discovered new signal soon after return to shuttle. Possibly your location. Will be there soon," he assured her.

"Please hurry, Dr. Solus. There may be more of those things on the loose, and I can't even lift my pistol," she said anxiously.

"Extent of your injuries?" he asked.

"The thing bit my arm. I've lost a lot of blood. The rest of my body is almost completely numb," she told him.

"Extent of damage? Severe?" he asked.

"I couldn't stop the bleeding. The tourniquet wasn't working. The wound was too large. My omniblade...it can be set to ignite," she explained, her voice shaking.

"Will arrive soon".

"I'll wait here then," her words barely more than a sigh, her eyes watching the ceiling, expecting to be attacked just before her salvation. It would figure.

* * *

They followed the trail of blood to where Carrere had collapsed, unable to go on. They must have missed each other in the labyrinth of corridors that connected the hangar to the main part of the ship. If they had found her sooner, they might have been able to do something to save her arm.

When Liara first laid eyes on her, she could not tell if she was alive or dead. Her skin was ashen, no longer the vibrant blue asari were known for. Her eyes were sunken into her skull, dark circles below them giving her a gaunt, skeletal appearance. The sleeve of her flight suit was torn and stained with deep red blood that was also spattered on her chest. She could see where her arm was truncated and wrapped in bandages, the severed limb lying near where she was forced to slice it off.

Mordin kneeled over her, scanning with his omnitool. "Lieutenant Seris, you must remain awake".

Her eyes fluttered open and she spoke, her voice quiet and hoarse, "Just resting..."

"We need to know what attacked you, and why you fled here," Saren said abruptly, but Liara noticed his voice lacked his usual edge".

"I found Anella in the shuttle dead," she began, hissing as Mordin removed her makeshift bandages.

"Apologies, need to see wound," he spoke quickly, eyes focused on her amputated wrist.

"Something, like a tentacle or tendril burst out of the hole in her forehead, and her body started changing," she recalled, her face contorted in an expression of pain, either from Mordin's ministrations or the memory itself. "Her face...split in half and she grew fangs, and huge blades grew out of her arms. It happened so fast...literally in seconds. I wasn't prepared when she lunged at me".

"But you managed to escape," Nihlus urged her on.

"I shot it in the head, and managed to pull my arm free. It just kept coming. Whatever was inside her couldn't be killed. Its arms got trapped in the console, so I emptied an entire thermal clip into its chest, but it started to get free. I had to run," she finished.

"So whatever the hell it is is still out there," Saren growled, "along with spirits know how many others.

"Are you sure you hit it? In an emergency situation, even someone with training like you can have trouble aiming," Virlen asked.

"I was sitting right next to Anella when it attacked. It was chewing on my arm when I shot it in the head at point blank range. There were bits of brain all over me," she shuddered.

Mordin finished removing her bandages as she gasped, some of the burned flesh sticking to the cloth. The flesh and bone of her arm was scorched, arteries and veins shriveled and the interior of her wrist bones leaking a viscous fluid from the spongy marrow.

"Goddess," Liara flinched. "It must have been horrible...to do that to yourself".

"I had no choice, " she muttered, gesturing weekly to her severed wrist. "I could literally see through the holes the teeth of that thing made in my arm".

"Risk of exsanguination reduced, yes. Death still likely without treatment " Mordin observed. "Cauterization of this nature inadvisable for amputation. Risk of infection exponentially heightened. Have limited antibiotics available. Need blood transfusion also. Lacking equipment. Need to return to ship".

He injected her with a dose of asari-specific antibiotics and pain medication while wrapping her arm in clean gauze. "You have syringes. Can't you perform the transfusion here?" Nihlus asked.

Mordin shook his head. "Would require sharing of needles. Dealing with unknown pathogen. One or more us of us possibly infected. Risk high. Need access to sterilization equipment".

Saren nodded and contacted the ship. "_Explorer_, I need immediate medical evac. One wounded with severe blood loss. We found Lieutenant Seris alive but injured".

"This is the captain. We copy, specter. Matriarch Alsita's team has still not responded to our hails. The last shuttle remains on the surface of the planet," _Explorer _answered, Captain Pietra sounding tense.

"They haven't responded," Saren said flatly. "Is there a problem?"

"I cannot say. We received no message that anything was out of the ordinary, but it is strange..."

"I would say it's more than strange," Saren spat. "Were they attacked?

"Given your circumstances on the derelict ship, it is a possibility," she answered. "Without the shuttle, we cannot get to you. The hangar you are docked in is too small to hold _Explorer_".

"It is a certainty that if Seris is not evacuated immediately, she will not survive," Saren said coldly. "What are our options?"

"We could dock if you got the main hangar door open. That would require you to move through he ship though, and we do not know what you are dealing with there," she cautioned. "You could also wait it out. The ground team may jut be out of range of our communications".

"Unlikely," he snorted, "but not impossible. We will keep you updated, and one more thing...why are you manning the communications post?"

"Several of the crew members have complained of debilitating headaches. They are resting in the medical bay. I suppose something is going around. Cramped quarters and all," she explained.

"Captain, this is Dr. Solus. Have several questions. When did symptoms appear? Headaches only symptom? How many affected?" Mordin asked.

"They just started feeling sick an hour or so ago. As far as I'm aware they just have migraines, and only a few have reported feeling ill. A half dozen at most. It's nothing out of the ordinary. Minor viruses tend to spread quickly on ships like this. I've seen it a million times before. Why?"

"Believe this ship contaminated by unknown pathogen. Dismissed possibility of infection on _Explorer _after crewmember suffered seizure. Have revised opinion. Sickness aboard _Explorer _too convenient a coincidence," the doctor explained.

"Wait, you think there's some kind of alien disease on that ship? Have you all been infected?" she questioned sharply.

"Unknown. Theory based primarily on suspicion, circumstantial evidence. Parasite. Virus. May also be subsonic signal interfering with normal brain operation, impossible to know," Mordin explained.

"This ship has not been exposed to either the planet or that ship. There is no one that could be a carrier," the captain insisted.

"Indeed, but in STG we say when a situation feels off, it most likely is. Suggest quarantine of effected crewmembers. Precautionary," he urged her.

"It can't hurt, I suppose. If there's nothing else, doctor, specter, we'll be in touch," Pietra signed off.

Mordin breathed deeply and let out a sigh. "Situation troubling," was all he said.

"Everything about this mission is screaming trouble," Nihlus said dryly. "We're out in deep water, and turians can't swim"

"Maybe you can't, Nihlus," Saren smirked at his partner, "but I intend to keep my head above water".

"What do we do?" Liara asked quietly.

"We have two options. We wait at the hangar for pickup that may never come surrounded by who knows how many hostiles, or we make our way into the ship and try to get the main hangar door open, which means heading right into their territory. Either option sounds less than promising," Saren analyzed the situation.

"What about the Lieutenant? Time isn't on her side. She needs help now," Virlen pointed out the obvious.

Everyone was silent for a moment, thinking over what they could possibly do for her when Liara said, "A ship this size must have some kind of medical area. Even if the equipment is not designed for us, the bodies we found look similar enough to asari that the at least the transfusion equipment must be similar. They might have something like a sterilization chamber as well".

"This ship is a mile long. How in spirits' names are we supposed to find the medical wing?" Nihlus asked incredulously. "Would we even know what it was if we found it?"

"Well we can't just do nothing and let her die!" Liara said reproachfully.

"So you'd get all of us killed to save one?" Tavil accused, sounding like he did not want to move from where he was standing.

"It is very risky," Aenya backed him up. "Trying to get to the main hangar is fraught with peril as well. We only know vaguely where it is, and how could we open it. We do not know anything about this race's technology".

"That's what the quarian is here for," Saren sneered.

"We could split up," Liara suggested.

"Out of the question," Saren immediately put a stop to that line of thinking. "It'll just make picking us off that much easier. We stay together at all times unless absolutely necessary".

"I don't know, Saren. You and me could head to the main docking bay while everyone else stays with Seris at the hangar. That way the civilians will be protected and we won't be slowed down," Nihlus commented.

"I have no doubt we could, Nihlus," Saren agreed, "but part of our mission is to protect the scientists. I intend to carry that directive out".

"Wouldn't want to tarnish you record," Nihlus laughed.

"I do have a reputation to uphold," Saren shrugged. "Nominally, I am in charge, but I suppose I cannot dictate how we proceed to our friends in STG. I believe pushing through this ship to the main hangar is our best option. Opinions?"

"Agreed," Nihlus said simply.

"I disagree. I _strongly _disagree. We need to help Lieutenant Seris first. I say we search for the medical bay," Liara insisted, looking like a stonewall, unyielding and stubborn.

"You can go get yourself killed," Tavil scoffed. "I say we wait for extraction".

"Both of your opinions are irrelevant. We cannot risk the many for the one, and waiting out of cowardice is no option at all," Saren waved his hand dismissively.

"We can't just abandon her!" Liara persisted adamantly.

"Please, Dr. T'Soni...it's alright. I don't want to get you all killed for my mistake," Carrere rasped weakly. She put on a brave front, but secretly she was desperately hoping someone would side with Liara. She would not lower herself to beg though.

"Liara," Aenya said gently. "We need to do what is best for the group. If we can get the bay doors open, Lieutenant Seris will have a chance. Searching for a medical wing that may not even exist is folly. I know you understand that".

"No, I don't understand. I don't understand on giving up on her, so we can keep ourselves safe," she shook her head.

"You're young and emotional, I know. It is admirable that you want to help her, but that is not the path of wisdom..." Aenya continued before she was cut off.

"I'm not a naïve child," Liara said angrily. "What you're suggesting isn't wisdom, it's nothing but cowardice!"

"Alright, that's enough," Virlen stepped between them and took Liara aside. "Personal attacks won't convince anyone, Liara. What Dr. Parr is saying is perfectly legitimate...save for the young and emotional part". He said the last bit under his breath to her. "What do you think, Mordin?"

"Pathway clear. Logically, opening hangar doors best option. Risking team for single member not justifiable. Medical area may not exist. May not have equipment needed. Lieutenant may succumb to injuries before area found assuming it exists. Thinking in line with STG protocol," he considered the question as Liara's face fell. "However, duty as doctor conflicts. Never abandon patient. Do everything necessary and ethically to ensure patient survival. Unbreakable oaths. Duty outweighs logic. Support Dr. T'Soni".

"I'm with both of them," Virlen backed them up, earning a look of gratitude from Liara.

Saren's eyes narrowed. "We are at an impasse then..."

"You can do as you wish, but I am not going with you," Liara worked up the courage to tell the specter.

"What do you say, Saren? Could be fun. After all, it's only our lives on the line," Nihlus joked.

Saren studied Liara, his piercing blue eyes passing over her defiant expression. "A specter is expected to excel in the most dangerous situations. You will get your way, doctor".

Carrere let out a sigh of relief, too weakened to try to hide her elation. Liara also looked pleased while Aenya wore a worried expression. Tavil was obviously not happy, knocking into Liara roughly as he brushed by and whispering, "Thanks for signing my death warrant T'Soni, but if I have to go, here's hoping you join me".

She maintained her impassive expression, doing her best to ignore him. "Pretty gutsy for a baby asari, standing up to him like that," Nihlus said to her. "Just remember, you may have won, but part of the responsibility for everyone's safety now falls on you. You better be prepared to carry that burden. Make sure you don't forget".

"I won't," she insisted.

He nodded. "Then we're clear". He picked up the wounded Carrere, her truncated arm cradled on her waist with the other wrapped around the back of his neck. "Easy there, Lieutenant. Remember if we get attacked, I'm going to have to put you down".

"Just don't drop me," she murmured in response, the ghost of a smile on her lips.

As Liara watched Nihlus, Virlen came to stand at her side. "Huh, maybe I misjudged him. Nihlus seems like a good guy. He's putting a lot of trust in you".

"I know it's foolish," she conceded, "but I couldn't live with myself knowing my safety required her death".

"Hey, I'm not judging. I agreed with you and Mordin," he said, his expression thoughtful. "Liara, you like horror vids?"

"Not particularly, why?"

"I love them. When you've experienced real fear, they're almost funny to watch. Warped STG sense of humor you know," he grinned at her. "Well to the point. There's always a moment where the protagonists make a stupid decision and walk right into trouble despite all signs pointing to it being a bad idea. If this were a vid, this'd be the point where the audience groans, knowing the stupid bastards have just sealed their own fate. So lets be a little genre savvy about this, you know?"

"Well I'm certainly not going to go off on your own if that's what you're saying," Liara said dryly.

"I don't think you have anything to worry about Liara. If this were a vid, you'd obviously be the final girl. It's the rest of us who got problems," he smirked.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you," she teased, surprised by her boldness.

"I'm counting on it".

"Maybe, we'll meet some of this ship's crew. They might be able to help us," she voiced her hope.

"It looks like they can't even help themselves," Virlen said darkly.

It took some time to navigate through the maze of passages and access tunnels to the large warehouse. Everyone had a weapon out now, Saren with his phaeston assault rifle, Virlen with his mattock, and the rest of them with assorted SMGs and pistols. Virlen earlier had forced her to switch from her "peashooter" to an acolyte compact grenade launcher and set the projectiles to explode on contact. She was still a little wary of it even thought he streamlined asari design felt more natural in her hand than her previous weapon.

When they got to the blast door, Liara's mouth hung open as she looked at the impossible scene before her. All the bodies were gone, leaving a large smear of blood on the grimy deck. Even the severed body parts were gone, like someone had come and gathered them all up. Who, and more importantly, why would someone do that?

"Corpses removed. Suspect parasite takes over bodies of deceased. Problematic," Mordin observed.

"Goddess, we could be walking right into a trap. This area might be infested with them," Aenya shuddered.

"We can still go back to the hangar. We can fortify a position there or something. It's to dangerous to go in there!" Tavil insisted strenuously.

Saren looked at them contemptuously and spoke harshly, "Staying here and waiting to be attacked is not an option. We are moving forward".

"Action always preferred over passivity," Mordin agreed.

As they stepped into the large room, trying to make out what it contained in the inky dark, an alarm suddenly blared, red lights turning on and spinning, casting everything in a blood red glow. The blast door groaned and slammed shut, shaking the floor with an echoing boom.

Liara turned around, eyes widening as she read the message in asari script on the back of the blast door seemingly written in blood.

**MAKE US WHOLE**

Anything she could say just died on her tongue. It made no sense. No one else seemed to know how to respond to the message that could not have been written there. None of them could have painted it, and no one other than their group should know the asari language.

"So trapped, huh?" Virlen was the first to speak. He leaned into Liara and whispered, "The audience must be shaking their head right about now".

Liara just nodded, not really listening. It was almost as if the ship was speaking to them, but its request made no sense. "Make whom whole?" she said to herself. The ship gave no answer.

* * *

**A/N: Here's chapter two. Thanks to everyone who read an reviewed. I will respond to reviews by PMs since these notes might become long otherwise. Several reviewers asked if Isaac will be making an appearance. He will at some point in the story, but for now, the focus will be on the Mass Effect characters.**


	3. The Attack

_One day prior to the events on the USG Ishimura:_

"Now that we are all assembled," Matriarch Alsita inclined her head respectfully to Liara and Virlen, "I will go into detail about what precisely we have discovered. I know some of you have already attended extensive briefings on the subject, but the abruptness of this expedition means that some of you have only recently been brought aboard. I thank you all for contributing to the cause of galactic peace and scientific discovery".

As the matriarch spoke, Liara looked around at some of the assembled team members. She recognized Dr. Aenya Parr immediately, the anthropologist's violet eyes focused intently on Matriarch Alsita. She looked forward to speaking with her at some length about her interest in this mission. She was obviously well versed in the customs and beliefs of many disparate cultures, so learning about a new race must be an exciting opportunity for her.

Two other asari were standing near her, but they did not seem nearly as engrossed in what the matriarch had to say as the doctor was. The light blue one, Seris her nametag showed, tried to cover her laughter unsuccessfully with her hand, as the other, a stunning, violet skinned officer named Tao whispered something in her ear. Dr. Parr looked over at them and glared, immediately silencing them. All of those years as a professor had probably honed her ability to make distracted students pay attention, Liara thought with a smile.

Two turians were present as well, the first steel gray with piercing blue eyes. His fringe looked different from most turians she had seen before with two long, tapering horns extending back from the sides of his head. She had heard somewhere that barefaced turians were untrustworthy, and from the scowl he bore, he certainly did not seem the most approachable sort.

The other turian stood beside him, this one darker with elaborate white clan markings like those of the new turian Councilor Sparatus. They must hail from the same colony. He wore red and black armor in contrast to the drab gray of his counterpart, his bearing stern and regal. Both were well armed, assault rifles and snipers strapped to their armor and shotguns slung low along their waists. These two had to be the specters Virlen was talking about. They looked like they were going into battle rather than attempting peaceful first contact.

"As you are no doubt aware, the Council forbade opening new relays in the aftermath of the Rachni War. It was believed at the time that the Citadel could not afford another war after the devastation of that conflict and the rebellions that followed. The centuries passed though, and what was once policy due to weakness became undeniably political. No one wanted to be the leader remembered for plunging the citadel into another desperate conflict, so the prohibition remained," Alsita explained. "We have nearly exhausted the number of habitable planets in known space unfortunately, which has led even the most conservative to consider alternatives".

She paused for a moment before continuing, "Our friends in the Special Tasks Group in collaboration with the leaders of each Council race agreed several months ago to scout out space beyond Relay 314. They encountered a new species almost immediately".

"Fortunately, their ships possessed stealth capability. They went undetected, or so they believe. We are all lucky an invasion has not commenced already" the scowling turian spoke up, shooting a pointed glare at Virlen and Mordin.

"Learned from mistakes of Rachni War. STG protocols call for greater caution during first contact," Mordin responded, seemingly unperturbed by the turian's criticism.

"Please Specter Arterius, what is done is done. The STG scouting unit was acting with approval from the Council and followed their orders not to engage or contact the new species. We have an opportunity now that has not been presented to our people in some time: the chance to meet a new race," the matriarch spoke. "If the Goddess be good, we will have a new addition to the Citadel".

He scoffed at that, drawing stares from everyone in the room. "What species that is already capable of building ships close to two kilometers long will be interested in being condescended to by the Council?"

That got Liara's attention. Most dreadnoughts averaged around a kilometer, something she knew from visiting the shipyards as a primary school student for a field trip. Only a few ships such as the unrivaled _Destiny Ascension_ could boast of being larger. Building on a larger scale did not necessarily mean its creators are warlike, she chided herself. Perhaps they only wanted to test their limits or prove that engineering on such a large scale was possible. She only had to look at the protheans and the scale of the Citadel and the mass relays as examples.

"They may be an advanced race, but it is not uncommon that we encounter a race that already has mastered interstellar travel, your own species for one, Specter Arterius. Not every species we come upon have only taken their first steps into the great vastness of space," she reminded the scowling turian.

"Not every species we come across has a weapon capable of tearing a planet asunder," he responded sarcastically.

"They...they can do that?" Liara spoke, shock clear in her voice.

"The ship our prowlers located is in the process of removing a planet's crust. Sensors indicated the presence of a gravitational disturbance on a scale only duplicated by the mass relays. It would appear that they have discovered an unconventional use for mass effect fields," Virlen explained.

"Planet uninhabitable. Orbital images of local terrestrial settlement indicate a mining colony of some kind. Unlikely that we are dealing with warship," Mordin theorized.

"A ship does not have to be designed for war to be dangerous," Saren pointed out, gesturing off to the side. Liara realized with a start that a quarian was standing there in the corner. She had not even noticed him. "Quarian liveships can pack the firepower of three dreadnaughts, but not many would consider them a threat".

The quarian snorted and said, "I doubt the admiralty is going to risk our species extinction by sending the liveships into battle".

"Never say never," the specter smirked. "We always forget that the quarians have the largest fleet of any race, but they are regarded as a nuisance rather than a danger".

"I am afraid I am having difficulty understanding your point," Alsita spoke.

"I am saying that the things we ignore...what we consider to be innocuous may actually be the most dangerous," he clarified. "A ship that can manipulate mass effect fields to rip a planet apart...imagine such a ship being deployed against Thessia, Palaven, or Sur'Kesh. Could we stop such a superweapon?"

"Most species are rational," Dr. Parr spoke up for the first time. "Most are not inclined to wanton destruction".

The scowling turian scoffed, "Tell that to the Krogan, or the Rachni, or the Yahg".

"All of those species evolved in extremely harsh environments. Maintaining a high population and increasing their range was necessary to compensate for the unimaginable death rate of their species. The tools evolution gave them to survive were inimical to modern, peaceful society," she argued. "Even so, the Krogan have shown that they can adapt although the genophage and their warrior culture remain restraints on progress".

"That is a keen analysis, doctor," the other turian, the one with tattoos spoke, "but we don't know what kind of environment this new species evolved in. If they are so desperate for resources that they would resort to destroying planets, they might have already ruined their homeworld with pollution and overpopulation. We can't make a judgment about them with so little information".

"I am aware of that, Specter Kryik," she said evenly.

"You're wasting your breath, Nihlus. They will not be satisfied until they're being butchered like the diplomats on the Yahg expedition," the other specter smirked at his partner.

"We will endeavor to avoid bloodshed and pray to the Goddess to grant us the wisdom to establish good relations," Matriarch Alsita spoke confidently. "We can only hope and believe that our future friends are as eager to meet those who inhabit this mysterious galaxy as we are. Why else would they have looked up at the stars and resolved to one day travel amongst them?"

"To conquer them," Specter Arterius spoke under his breath. Matriarch Alsita did not react as if she had heard him, but Liara surely had. She wondered what made this specter so paranoid. Not every race plotted to one day enslave all the others and expand their hegemony across all the arms of the galaxy. Some, like the protheans, had carefully cultivated the young races and watched over them, leaving the wonders they created to guide them.

She hoped to meet this new race and learn about them. They would have much to teach each other.

* * *

_The Derelict - flight deck:_

"Make us whole?" Aenya said aloud, her expression confused as she looked upon the blood-red letters. "How could this even be here?"

Saren's eyes narrowed and he turned to Carrere. "Do you know anything about this?" he demanded.

She shook her head quickly, but Liara thought she looked a little paler, and her eyes looked haunted. "Someone aboard this ship would have had to know the asari language," Aenya concluded. "It had to be one of us. The aliens could not know our language, could they?"

"Relay recently opened. No opportunity to monitor Citadel communications," Mordin thought aloud. "Lieutenant Seris seems only possible culprit. Not possible though. Could not move the bodies in short time period. Too injured to write message".

Virlen ran a finger down one of the letters and looked to see if the tip was stained. "This is already dry. It's been here for a while. Maybe before we even arrived on the ship".

"Then how do you explain it being here?" Aenya asked, receiving a noncommittal shrug as an answer.

"This is a distraction anyway," Nihlus said. "We can wonder about it as we head deeper into the ship. The Lieutenant here isn't doing so well".

"Always one to keep a cool head, huh Kryik?" Virlen smirked.

"My eyes are always focused on the objective at hand, operative," he answered.

The blast door seemed to open into some kind of seating area. Luggage was abandoned on the floor and on the plastic chairs, clothes and other items strewn around. This was probably where people waited to board shuttles, and it seemed that many had lost their lives here from all the blood painting the walls and floor. There were reception desks at the opposite end, the glass smashed and cracked from something trying to force its way through. Holographic screens of computers were still on, but they could not make anything out with the letters in that strange, stark script they used.

"They must have made there way here to escape whatever attacked this ship," Saren observed before pointing to several charred corpses line up against the far wall. "Those ones were executed...most likely by whatever security was present on this ship. An example to the rest".

"I can imagine a riot breaking out. There must have been mass panic," Virlen said grimly. "We saw how they were piled against that sealed door".

"Probably because there was not enough room for everyone to escape," Nihlus spoke. "In an emergency order must be kept. These people would have swamped the shuttles and prevented anyone from escaping otherwise".

"You, quarian, what do you make of this computer tech?" Saren growled, grabbing Tavil and pulling him over to one of the desks.

Tavil stepped gingerly over the shards of broken glass and knelt down to get a better look. He disassembled the computer quickly, pouring over its components. "Everything looks pretty standard: hard drive, CPU, microprocessor, some transistors, network drive. The design is different, but it's pretty easy to tell what everything does. I'm not seeing anything amazing or groundbreaking if that's what you're asking," he concluded.

"Can you try to translate its memory?" Aenya asked.

"I'd need to write a program from scratch to try to make comparisons between images and written words and what words are used most often. Might not even do us any good. Also, downloading is an issue. The network must have firewalls, and I can't hack it if I can't even read the code".

"Can't you just connect to the hardware manually?" Liara suggested.

Tavil gave her a look, and even through his mask she could tell that he was looking at her if she was a slug or some other manner of lower life form. "I _could_ do that...if I had time to fabricate adapters for the input/output jacks," he scoffed.

"I was just asking a question," she defended herself.

"A stupid question," he murmured.

They made their way out of the terminal and into another dark corridor, the lights barely able to stay on for a few moments at the time. They constantly checked the vents, but the access panels and grates all seemed bolted tight to the ducts. They were moving with a rough idea of where they were going, as Saren pointed out that it made sense for the medical area to be in the protected center of the ship. Whenever they found a stairwell, they moved lower from one deck to another, hoping to see some indication of where they would find the supplies they were seeking.

"We're pretty much running around blind on this ship. We can feel around in the darkness and maybe find our way with a little luck, but we're at a disadvantage not knowing the language or the technology," Nihlus sighed.

"I've been in worse situations, and you have too. Remember that time with the justicar?" Saren let out a bark of laughter.

"To this day, I am still wary of going to asari space," Nihlus nodded his head in agreement.

"You angered a justicar...and lived?" Aenya spoke in disbelief, her expression amazed.

"The specters only take the best," he shrugged.

"Why would a justicar attack you?" Liara inquired. "They only go after criminals".

"Specters tend to cause collateral damage," he said in a tone that suggested he did not want to go into that subject.

As their group descended further, the corridors and storage rooms looked increasingly similar. The grated floors, the unfinished walls made up of nothing but drab pipes and rusted ducts, every passage they passed through doing nothing to break up the monotony. The air smelled of oil and decaying flesh, but outside of the occasional splatter of blood coating the narrow corridors, there were no bodies.

"The air is rank. Isn't the life support system working?" Virlen looked up at the vents with a disgusted look.

"Sporadically," Saren answered. "A ship of this size does not maintain itself, and there seems to be a distinct lack of personnel aboard. The air has been getting warmer".

"So we could suffocate?" Liara asked in a high voice.

"Ship nearly two kilometers in length. Given no hull breaches, volume of air should be sufficient," Mordin reassured her.

"Speaking of hull breaches," Virlen spoke up. "There's a structural weakness".

Liara looked where he was pointing, seeing a soft, ethereal light projecting from the uniform darkness. There was a window there, spanning almost the full length of the room. The glittering stars shone through the thick glass, their light the only thing illuminating the area. The planet loomed far below them, the great wound in its crust glowing from the exposed mantle. A cloud of vaporized rock surrounded the ship, forming a gaseous tail as the suspended piece of the planet below crumbled.

It still astounded her how a ship could literally rip a section of a crust from a planet. These people must have knowledge of mass effect fields that equaled that of the protheans, being able to manipulate gravity as they did. What was strange though is that the salarians had detected no trace of element zero in their earlier surveillance, which at the time they attributed to advanced shielding. Now that they were aboard though, their sensors still indicated a lack of the precious element. If it was not so absurd, she might have theorized that this species followed a different technological path than every other known race.

"This looks like part of an observation deck. People could come here and watch the ships leave the main hangar," Nihlus guessed.

"Given the size of this ship, it is possible that this is like a flotilla vessel, more a home than anything else. They harvest resources wherever they jump to next to sustain the crew," Tavil suggested. "Can't say without seeing more of it though".

They made to move on when they heard something moving past the opposite door. Heavy footfalls echoed in the confined space, the awkward gait of the creature responsible obvious by the shambling, scraping sound of its movement. Saren readied his weapon, pushing Liara behind him as he aimed at the far door. Whatever it was continued to approach, its footsteps becoming louder as everyone in the party tensed.

Liara clutched her pistol in both hands, preparing to point the barrel at the doorway when Virlen caught her hand. She turned to give him a questioning look as he shook his head and whispered, "Can't risk explosive rounds with that glass. Don't know how tough it is".

She nodded, lowering her gun. She looked behind her to see Tavil nervously fingering the trigger of his beaten-up shotgun and Mordin checking the corridor they came through with the light on his SMG. The footsteps stopped, and they heard sniffing, like it was trying to catch their scent. They waited for its movement to resume, but it remained quiet, the only sound the weak whir of the air vent fans. After a few minutes of nothing, they moved out into the observation room, everyone still holding their weapons at the ready.

Virlen and Saren checked the far door, shining a light down the gloomy hall, but there was no evidence that anything had even been there. The door at the other end was closed, and the vent grates were all still in place. A corpse lay slumped against the wall, its flesh shredded like the others had been, red muscle and yellow bone exposed from the savage slashes inflicted upon it. They could not all just be hearing things.

"The area is clear. Nothing out of the ordinary," Virlen shrugged.

"Check the vents," Carrere whispered, her voice sounding so faint that it was almost drowned out by the life support system. "That's how they move around".

"Already done," Saren said brusquely. "No sign of anything living".

"What about in the ceiling or under the deck plating?" she spoke desperately. "Have you checked everywhere it could be hiding?"

Saren looked around, his eyes focusing on the narrow passageway, "Maybe not. Give me that," he growled, seizing Liara's pistol and aiming it at the corpse. He fired, the arcing projectile sticking to the body before detonating, splattering black blood and bits of flesh on the ceiling and walls.

He shoved the pistol back into Liara's hands, as she looked wide-eyed at the exploded carcass. She looked down at the weapon and tried to suppress a shudder. She could not imagine shooting anything living with it.

Aenya clicked her tongue in distaste. "Was that really necessary?" she reproached the specter.

"Lieutenant Seris thought she was safe until that corpse reanimated," he spoke in an annoyed tone. "We cannot afford to take chances".

"Still," Liara spoke up. "It seems disrespectful to the dead".

"The dead are beyond caring about their dignity," he scowled at her.

Liara's face reddened as she looked away. The tone he used with her, indeed the way most everyone here spoke with her, reminded her of how teachers would speak to young asari in the early years of their schooling. Deciding to let the slight go, she sighed and looked up at the nearest vent, seeing a pair of cloudy bloodshot eyes staring back at her.

She opened her mouth to scream before the thing burst through the grate, tackling her to the ground. Its face was so close, pale, yellowing flesh and a gaping maw that stretched from the ruined slits of its nose all the way down to the base of its throat. It roared at her, spraying her face with noxious saliva and blood. It was pinning her down, her arms trapped under the mass of decaying flesh. It raised one arm, graying muscle exposed through its flayed skin tightening along its elongated bones and prepared to slash at her with a set of wicked looking claws.

Finally the scream escaped her mouth, a long, wailing cry echoing off the low ceiling. She closed her eyes as it brought its claws down to tear at her unprotected body, her heart almost stopping from the fear. The feeling of sharp nails cutting into her skin never came though, and she opened her eyes as she felt its weight lift off her.

Saren was there, restraining the beast from behind and lifting it up into the air. He grunted as the monster flailed about, kicking and scratching at him, causing his shields to flicker. He threw it into the wall, bone crunching and its flesh making an awful squelching sound, as it struggled to regain its footing.

Nihlus was ready, having already handed Carrere off to Aenya, firing a burst from his phaeston into the creature's chest. Against an unshielded foe, the projectiles ripped through soft tissue, gouts of blood exploding from the wound as he punched a hole straight through. The injury did not even faze the creature though as it regained its balance.

They backed away as it lurched forward, Mordin, Virlen, and Saren now joining Nihlus in raining fire down upon it. Its head was completely blasted away, leaving a truncated spine sticking out of a mass of dripping meat. There were massive holes in its chest and abdomen now, what organs remained almost liquefied as they continued their sustained fire.

It just kept coming though, and despite not having any senses left to speak of, it suddenly charged right at them, its jerky, twitchy movements reminding Liara of a decapitated insect. Steam screamed from Saren's rifle, as he ejected a thermal clip, a savage growl escaping his mouth. He dropped the weapon and held both hands forward. His body glowed a deep blue, and he pushed the monster away with bone-crushing force. Not even waiting to see if that finished it off, he followed up with another blast, warping the light around them and setting off a biotic explosion.

The sound was deafening, and for a moment Liara's vision shook as equilibrium returned to her inner ear. She and the rest of the group were covered with gore from the detonation. She wiped off her face, revulsion rising within her as the slimy gunk stuck to her fingers. She looked over at everyone else, checking to see if they were fine. The only one who looked shaken was Aenya who was gnawing on her fingernails in a nervous manner. Tavil was trying to remove some of the blood from his visor and only managed to smear it worse.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and she jumped, only to hear the reassuring voice of Virlen, "Hey, Liara, it's okay. That thing's dead. Are you hurt?"

"I don't think so," she said quietly, struggling to keep her voice from quivering. She looked down and saw that the rest of her body was trembling as well. She tried to stop, but her shoulders still shook and she was unable to keep her hand steady as Virlen pulled her to her feet.

Mordin moved quickly to her side, turning her around so he could check her. "No sign of physical injury," he concluded. "Loss of muscular control suggests psychological trauma, however".

"Liara, are you all right?" Aenya questioned, her expression filled with concern.

"Would you be?" Virlen scoffed, scowling at her as she handed off Carrere to Nihlus. The injured asari was practically shivering in his arms.

"I...I'm a bit shaken is all," Liara said in a high voice. "I think I'll be fine in a minute".

"These things are stalking us," Tavil spoke in a panicked voice. "She's led us into a deathtrap! We should go back. I can hotwire the blast door and..."

"Stop being a pathetic coward, quarian," Saren snapped at him. "In case your small mind has forgotten, Lieutenant Seris was attacked in the hangar. No place is safe on this ship".

"Saren, did you see how much damage that thing took? If a few of them attack, we might get overwhelmed. We cannot afford to get surprised like that again," Nihlus said gravely.

"We just need a way to kill them more effectively," his partner said. "Headshots and shots to center mass seem ineffective. Biotics apparently work. Tech bursts might do the job as well".

"What was that thing though? Did any of you get a good look at it? It looked dead," Virlen asked.

"Know the subject infests corpses. Source of infestation unknown as all are aware. Body partly decomposed. Evidence of mutation as well. Virus or parasite possibly reanimates corpses. Reproduces by killing suitable hosts. Explains aggressive behavior," Mordin concluded.

As he finished speaking, a high, warbling shriek filled the room. All weapons were suddenly turned to the source, and they saw another of the creatures slowly climbing from a floor-level access port. It looked at them stupidly with one milky white eye, not appearing to be actively hostile. Like the other, it looked grotesque, its face split in half with spongy brain hanging out. It shambled forward on one leg, able to move thanks to its elongated arm and a glowing sack that hung from where its other arm should have been.

It approached slowly, moving like a tripod, continuing to let out those bone-chilling shrieks. "How many of these things are there?" Virlen swore as they backed away.

"Hundreds? Thousands? The ships's damn near two kilometers long, remember?" Nihlus snorted. "Should we shoot it?"

"Something is wrong. Why is it moving so slowly? We can easily get away," Liara asked, the cold feeling of fear washing over her again.

"She's right. Hold your fire. Everyone move back to the entranceway. See if it follows," Saren ordered.

They all did so, but Liara turned back to see Tavil, cowering by the doorjamb, his shotgun raised as if to fire. Saren saw him too, and he snarled, "I said to hold fire!"

Liara stood next to the specter, the pair of them now alone in the room with the staggering monster. The way he was holding his gun, Liara thought for a split second that he was actually going to shoot her. Saren must have though the same as he maneuvered his way in front of her, the barrel of his assault rifle slowly rising, not enough to be readily discerned. "I said lower your weapon, quarian," he said in a dangerous tone.

"Fuck that! I'm not giving that thing a chance," he said shrilly, his hand shaking as he leveled the shotgun at the monstrous thing.

Saren flicked his eyes in Nihlus' direction and the turian made a subtle move to get close enough to disarm him. Before he could make it though, Tavil fired, the spray of charged shrapnel striking the mutant. Liara turned to look at it, the strange sack it carried rupturing before glowing a brilliant yellow.

The explosion took them both off their feet, slamming them into the near wall. Liara looked around dazed, her eyes widening as she saw the explosion was the least of their problems. A spider web of cracks laced across the thick glass, the telltale sound of vacuum sucking the air from the room giving way to a howl as the weakened glass shattered. She felt her body leaving the deck, the swift flow of escaping air pulling her inexorably to the twinkling stars. Alarms sounded and flashing lights suddenly lit the darkened room.

Liara reached for something, anything to grab hold of, but her grasping fingers found no purchase. She opened her mouth to scream, but it was sucked from her lungs like the rest of the rushing air.

One thought filled her mind: she was going to die like this. Just as that realization registered, a strong hand wrapped around her flailing wrist and wrenched her arm back. She barely felt the pain shooting through her shoulder, as she hung there, looking back to see a grimacing Saren holding her back from the void. The talons of his other hand were clutching a pipe like a vice, his assault rifle clattering off the ceiling as it went spinning out into the field of stars. His expression looked strained, and he looked back like he was loosing his grip.

A blast door slammed down from the ceiling only a second later, sealing the breach and dropping them both to the floor. Saren did not waste any time, springing to his feet and stomping directly toward Tavil who had been stricken dumb by the explosion. He pushed Nihlus and Virlen aside and grabbed the smaller quarian by the collar, lifting him from his feet and smashing him into the nearest wall. He looked furious, his mandibles quivering with rage, and for a second Liara thought he actually might kill him.

When he spoke though, his voice was controlled and icy cold, "When I give an order, quarian, it is not meant as a suggestion. Understand?" Tavil nodded quickly, too frightened to speak. "I am starting to think you are a liability, quarian. I hope very much for your sake that I am wrong".

He dropped him to the ground and stormed away, pausing for a moment and looking down at the still frozen Liara. "Th...Thank you. You saved me twice," she stuttered, finding herself looking away from his cold gaze.

"You have biotics, do you not?" he growled.

"Wh...what?" she stammered.

"Biotics," he snapped, losing his patience. "You are an asari. You have biotics, correct?"

"Y...yes, I do," she answered.

"Then stop acting helpless," he chided her. "You could have thrown off that thing, but instead you squealed like a frightened child. I cannot afford two useless members on this team, one is bad enough".

With that, he strode past her, stopping to check the blast door that had sealed the breach. Liara tried to pick herself up, but a shooting pain ran through her shoulder and down her arm, the limb buckling and leaving her sprawled out on the deck again. She grabbed her shoulder, grimacing as she felt something pop.

Virlen helped her back to her feat, as Mordin ran his omnitool over her shoulder. "Hmm, not dislocated. Mild strain most likely. Possible muscle tear, but require resonance imager to be sure. Should not inhibit movement though," he concluded before handing her a bandage. "Here. Cold patch should reduce swelling".

"We can't stay here any longer. The whole deck probably heard that. If anything was in earshot, they'll be converging here," Nihlus warned.

"Then we move on," Saren agreed.

"What if we meet more of those...things?" Aenya questioned, looking extremely nervous.

"We keep our distance and put them down," Saren said simply, reaching to take the shotgun slung low across his back.

"You want my rifle, Saren. I know you prefer them to shotguns," Nihlus asked.

"Keep it. I'll make do. Don't want to risk using the krysae yet unless we're really in a tight spot," he shook his head.

"Should have stayed with the sniper rifle that does not exclusively fire explosive rounds," Virlen pointed out airily.

"I prefer a weapon of turian make," Saren spoke in a condescending tone. "A weapon I can rely on".

Virlen ignored the slight and instead turned to Liara. "Today's just not your day it seems," he joked.

"I don't think there is anything funny about this," she snapped, her eyes flashing before widening as she controlled herself. "I apologize. That was uncalled for".

"No, get angry. We're going to need that fire if we're all going to make it out of here. Next time just smash that little bastard into oblivion, got it?" the grinning salarian told her.

"And die when it blows up in my face apparently," she smiled wryly.

"That's what your biotic barrier is for," he gave her a friendly tap to the shoulder. "And you're going to need it too if our friend Tavil'Kala loses it again".

He said it loud enough so the quarian could hear. He stiffened at the rebuke, but did not say anything in return, simply putting his head down and brushing past them.

Mordin's communicator beeped and he held it to his ear, "Mordin Solus, go ahead _Explorer_".

"Dr. Solus, the situation is deteriorating aboard our ship. This condition, whatever it is, continues to spread among the crew, and their symptoms continue to get worse. I need your opinion; the doctors aboard are baffled," the captain spoke. She sounded harried, her voice seeming tense and drained of energy.

"Symptoms have progressed past cephalalgia?" he inquired quickly.

"Excuse me?" Pietra asked in a confused voice.

"Cranial pain," Mordin clarified.

"Yes. That is exactly it. Those affected have started...hallucinating it seems, having visions. Some of them are raving, speaking nonsense, and a few have had seizures. The sedatives do not seem to be having an effect anymore," she explained before letting out a worried sigh. "One of the crewmembers managed to get a scalpel away from a doctor, and before she could be restrained, she cut her throat in full view of the patients and medical staff. She fought off security even as she bled out. Some of the medical staff are traumatized now..."

Carrere let out a little gasp before covering her mouth. Mordin's large, black eyes flicked to her for a second, just enough to meet her gaze. "Disturbing. Symptoms seem consistent with physical deterioration of the frontal lobe," the doctor spoke thoughtfully.

"Yes, that is what the doctors aboard thought as well, but scans of their brains show no physical change. Everything seems fine," the captain seemed at a loss.

"Test the electrical activity of the afflicted brains. Unlikely that condition is chemical, no obvious infection vector. Is _Explorer_ equipped to scan infrasound or ultrasound signals?"

"Please, Dr. Solus, speak in laymen's terms," she urged him.

"Low or high frequency," he said patiently.

"Yes, but..." she started before he cut her off.

"Scan for any inaudible signals. Condition may be induced by a sound we cannot register. Outside hearing range," Mordin advised.

"I...I will do that. Thank you, doctor. Have any on your team developed similar symptoms?" she asked.

"No. All members mentally sound so far. Have faced attack by mutated creatures. No further injuries. Still no sign of living member of unknown race," he informed her.

"I see. We have still not heard from the matriarch or her ground team. I am considering sending a message through the comm buoy we set up at the relay. I am hesitant to do so though given the events of the last few hours. I want to keep whatever is affecting the crew contained, and the Council will surely send reinforcements that may fall victim to it as well if contacted," Pietra continued.

"If the situation worsens, contact the Citadel and explain the need for quarantining the system. Under no circumstances should any vessel come through that relay. Blockade the entrance to the relay if necessary," Saren came over the line.

"I will take your request into consideration, specter," she answered.

"See that you do," Saren spoke coldly

"Try to stay alive," she encouraged them before cutting communications.

"Easier said than done," Nihlus snorted. "If the walking corpses don't get us, it seems we can all look forward to losing our minds".

"None of us have shown any symptoms though. We cannot possibly be so fortunate that none of us would be affected when those aboard the _Explorer_ have clearly been so," Aenya thought aloud. "Is this madness just lying dormant within us?"

"If we don't even know what's causing it, it's pointless to speculate about why we seem to be unaffected," Saren said dismissively.

Liara privately agreed with the specter. Without any idea of whether this was some kind of degenerative brain disease, infection, artificially induced, or something even more fantastical, there was really no point in discussing it further. The reasons for their own apparent immunity might have something to do with proximity to the theorized signal or an unidentified cure already in the air. When she looked at Mordin though, the doctor's expression was grave and his eyes focused on Carrere.

"I...I think I may have some symptoms," the injured woman admitted, no longer willing to keep her terrifying vision a secret. "I saw a vision...I thought it was just from the blood loss, but it was so vivid, so real. And something happened in it that could not have happened if it was just a hallucination".

Mordin did not seem surprised at all at the revelation. The others were either shocked like Aenya or angry like Saren and Tavil. "It never occurred to you to let us know this critical information after hearing about the ongoing situation aboard _Explorer_?" he spoke scathingly.

"Captain Pietra did not mention visions earlier..." she defended herself weakly.

"So all of us are fucked now just so we could save you, and now you tell us that it was all a waste?" Tavil said accusingly. "How long until you go feral and turn on all of us?"

"You're more of a danger to everyone than me," Carrere said sharply with all the strength she could muster.

"Lieutenant Seris, need more extensive explanation of your vision. Hallucination could very well be caused by blood loss. We are reaching conclusions without evidence," Mordin held up a hand, silencing the argument before it could get going.

"It was Anella. She...she blamed me for leaving her to die. Her eyes and mouth were glowing somehow, and her voice sounded wrong...like it was coming over a radio filled with static," she said reluctantly.

"You were attacked by her possessed corpse. You were injured and traumatized, delirious. It makes sense that you would see something like that," Liara supported her.

"Yes, but she asked me to do something...she said to make us whole. Just like that message in blood," Carrere grimaced, her expression pained as she recalled the nightmare. "I could not have known about that...unless I was the one who wrote it".

"Doubtful," Mordin said dismissively. "No strength left to walk after massive blood loss. Not enough time to write. Blast door would have sealed you in. No, not possible".

"But I knew about it before we saw the message!" she insisted.

"Yes, message written in asari language...an explanation evades me," Mordin considered the possibilities. "If one assumes madness induced by same outside source...victims may exhibit similar obsessive behavior. Focus on mantras common. If victims experience same hallucinatory images or words...provides some evidence for hive mind phenomenon. Can only speculate though".

"And what would you recommend, doctor?" Nihlus asked. Liara noticed that he had not let go of Carrere even though she might be infected by some insanity causing infection.

"Have you any other symptoms? Just the one vision?" Mordin asked.

"Only the vision I just told you about," she answered.

"Could still be caused by delirium due to blood loss. Possibility of misremembering the content of the vision. Seeing message might have triggered false memories. Either way, whether she has condition of those aboard _Explorer_ immaterial. Just one more problem in need of treatment," he concluded.

"What, we're still going to take her with us, even though it could spread to all of us?" Tavil said incredulously.

"Yes," Mordin answered in an annoyed tone. "If Lieutenant Seris is exhibiting symptoms, most likely all of us will be shortly".

"So I don't get any say in this?" Tavil asked.

"No," Nihlus said with finality. "You're welcome to go off on your own if you're so concerned though".

"If I did, I'd still be making a saner decision than the lot of you," he said under his breath.

Liara confronted him, her narrowed eyes looking into the glowing slits of light beyond his cloudy visor. "You need to stop," she whispered. "Your negativity isn't helping".

"Oh, so I guess the quarian needs to know his place and shut up," he said harshly.

"I didn't say that," she argued. "I'm just as afraid as you are, but I'm not suggesting we leave Carrere behind to die".

"So in other words, I'm free to have an opinion...as long as it's the same as yours," he said in disgust.

Liara did not know how to respond. She was not used to arguing with someone, and any response she came up with made her sound hypocritical. "What, nothing to say, T'Soni? Is the wise asari done lecturing the ignorant suit rat?" he continued sarcastically. "Well if you're finished, I have another opinion. We would all be better off if that monster finished you off".

Liara was shocked at the venom in his statement. "Th...that's terrible. Why would you say such a thing?" she stammered.

"Because you're the one that got us into this mess. We could be back at the hangar, safe and waiting for the other shuttle. Instead, we're here fighting off attacks from these freaks".

"We were no safer there than we are here," Liara argued, "and we will be even less safe if you don't start acting like a part of the team".

Tavil just grunted in response, turning his gaze away from her and toward another series of vents that lined the halls of the ship. The paranoia was certainly there, affecting all of them. Any minute another of those things could climb through a gap in the pipes or under the deck plating. The occasional bloodstain that marked the walls and floor testified to those who had not been vigilant.

They finally came to a large room that was well lit for a change. It seemed almost untouched, bags left on benches and even a few cups of liquid sitting around half drunk. A tramcar hung idling from a single rail at the edge of the station, its doors open in an inviting fashion.

"Makes sense that such a large ship would have some kind of rail system," Nihlus commented.

"If there are stations like this around important areas of the ship, we might be able to find the medical area. Process of elimination, you know," Virlen added.

They looked to Saren who said coldly, "As it is, we have no better options".

* * *

_Science Vessel Explorer:_

Sonaval glared at the hologram of the derelict ship, waiting for the tracker to reconfirm the position of the recon team. The damn thing was creepy with the tines radiating from the hull, making it look like the spine and ribcage of a skeleton. Their sensors were useless, constantly displaying conflicting information and more often than not unable to penetrate the hull of the huge, drifting hulk. It galled her, not being able to do more for those aboard that deathtrap. They had already lost Anella to whatever was lurking on that ship. She was relieved when she received word that Carrere survived, but without extraction, she could soon follow her fellow pilot.

Her blood boiled as her thoughts strayed to the matriarch on the planet below. Matriarchs were supposed to be wise and experienced, yet this one had displayed nothing but incompetence from the beginning. She had thought that a novice like Dr. T'Soni, hardly more than a child in her opinion, would be the one getting them into trouble, but her expectations had been dashed by a fool whose sole claim to authority was bumbling through life for a thousand years.

Everything about this mission had troubled her since the beginning. If the Council expected that they would initiate first contact, they should have included diplomats and more military personnel. Everything was so secretive though, and it seemed like everyone who was in the know wanted as few people aware of the situation as possible. The media, always a concern, would of course jump all over each other to get the story, but that was only an annoyance. The presence of the STG and the specters was even more worrying since it was almost like the Council wanted to keep this quiet.

She stared at the hangar bay, willing the doors to open and allow the _Explorer_ to land. She could not bear to lose anyone else, not while she was helpless to do anything about it. She captained scientific missions, not military expeditions, and she never expected to lose any of her crew. Now she had lost two, one to whatever invading parasite had taken over the derelict ship and another to madness. The entire crew including herself was at risk, and she needed to find some way to protect them.

"Captain, incoming transmission from the planet's surface," the replacement communications officer spoke.

"Put it through," she let out a sigh of relief before the wave of fury took hold again.

The insipid face of Matriarch Alsita appeared on screen, and Sonaval's fists tightened around the railing of her perch. "Captain Pietra, I see you have been trying to contact me?"

"Yes. Matriarch, I have," she tried to keep her tone even, but it was difficult to restrain herself. "There have been several incidents aboard the derelict while you were out of contact. The team has been attacked by some kind of creature. Lieutenant Tao is dead and Lieutenant Seris is badly hurt. Their shuttle in inoperable".

"Oh, how terrible!" the matriarch put a hand to her mouth to stifle a gasp. "Is anyone else injured?"

"Not that I know of, but they are still at risk of attack. We needed you to extract them, but _unfortunately_ you were unavailable," Sonaval said coldly. "They were forced to move further into the ship in search of medical supplies. Every second they are on board is one more second where they are in danger. I need that shuttle, immediately".

"I apologize profusely, captain. If I had known, I would never have allowed the pilots to accompany us to the settlement," she said, her expression one of genuine contrition. "Everyone was so interested in this new species that I felt it wrong to deny them an opportunity to learn more about them".

"I don't want to hear excuses!" the captain snapped. "Protocol clearly states that shuttle pilots are not to leave the cockpit in case of an emergency. Carrere could die at any moment because you were to busy admiring a deserted mining colony".

"You are tense, captain. I understand the stress you are under, but directing your anger at me is not helpful in this situation," Alsita chastised her. "Those in positions of authority must control their emotions and set an example for their crew".

"I don't have time for a lecture, matriarch," Sonaval growled. "What I need is for you to get to that ship and rescue the team onboard".

"I understand, Captain Pietra. We will leave immediately," she gestured to someone off-screen. "If I may inquire, you said the pilots were attacked by a creature? Are you referring to the creators of that ship?"

"No, I mean, I don't think so. They are not intelligent from what I've been told. More like animals than anything. Dr. Solus theorized that the ship may be experiencing some kind of parasitic outbreak. We have also been experiencing the spread of some kind of mental illness aboard _Explorer_. We don't know what is causing it yet, but it seems to be causing some form of insanity among several of the crew. I have ordered the implementation of quarantine measures. You should take similar precautions upon docking with the derelict," she explained.

"Parasites and the risk of developing insanity? Captain, it seems you are determined to send us into a very dangerous situation," Alsita said disapprovingly.

"None of your ground team has displayed any symptoms: headaches, seizures, hallucinations, psychosis?" Sonaval asked pointedly.

"No, everyone here is fine. I suppose though that we all must sacrifice for the sake of the whole," she conceded before smoothly shifting to another subject. "Oh, and captain, has the other team found any evidence of the prothean marker aboard?"

"Marker? The prothean beacon you mean? I hardly think that's important at the moment" she said sharply though she could not hide the confusion of why the matriarch was asking this now.

"Yes, yes, the beacon, excuse me. You are right of course. Now is not the time for that," she agreed, nodding her head vigorously.

"Oh, one more thing. I am planning to send a message through the relay explaining the situation and to request reinforcements," Sonaval informed the matriarch.

"No. No, I would not do that," Alsita said sharply. "This mental illness you have described is disturbing. If what you say is true about this parasite, we cannot risk it spreading into citadel space. We do not want to raise an alarm that could end in a larger outbreak. Do you understand?"

"I understand," Sonaval's eyes narrowed.

"Good. Keep me updated, Captain Pietra," Alsita ended the communication.

The feeling of unease remained in Sonaval's gut. If anything, the conversation with the matriarch had made it stronger. Something was very wrong, but she could not put her finger on it. Alsita's flippant attitude unnerved her. "Ensign, send the message through the comm buoy we installed on the relay to the Citadel" she ordered immediately.

"Ma'am? But the matriarch..." the communications officer protested.

"The matriarch is not in command here, ensign," she reminded the officer. "Send the message".

"Yes, ma'am," she nodded.

Sonaval hung her head, desperately hoping help would arrive and sort out the mess they now found themselves in. She knew it was the right thing to do. At least that was what she told herself.


End file.
